West Point Thoroughbreds’ Awesome Gem arrived at
Fair Grounds from her California
home base late Wednesday morning for Saturday’s Grade II New Orleans Handicap.
Trained by Craig Dollase, who will not be coming to New
Orleans for the race as
originally scheduled, Awesome Gem is being housed in the barn of Wally
Dollase, Craig’s father, and was being looked after by his sister Aimee
Dollase, when the 7-year-old altered son of Awesome Again was visited
Friday morning.
“(Awesome Gem) jogged this morning and showed a lot of
energy,” Aimee advised. “Craig got busy getting ready for the Santa Anita Derby
next week and couldn’t get away. His assistant Sergio Martin came with
the horse and he’ll saddle him for the race.”
However, it was Aimee Dollase who saddled Arnold Zetcher’s Zardana
to upset Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra in the $200,000 New
Orleans Handicap two weeks ago and the young horsewoman had a theory about why
Awesome Gem runs so well when he ships out of California.
“He seems to run his best races the first time he gets off
the synthetic surfaces after several races on them,” she said of Awesome Gem,
who flew to Chicago to capture the Grade II Hawthorne Gold Cup last October and
also invaded Emerald Downs in the vicinity of Seattle, Washington, to finish a
close second in the Grade III Longacres Mile last August.
In addition to Awesome Gem, Wednesday’s equine charter from
California was to have included Gallagher Equine’s Red Alert Day to be a
contestant in Saturday’s Grade II Mervin Muniz Memorial Handicap, also
on the Louisiana Derby Day program, but that reservation was cancelled
by Hall of Fame trainer Neil Drysdale following a last minute change of
plans for his British-bred gelding.
Did that bump up the cost of the flight for Awesome Gem?
“I really don’t know for sure, but I don’t think it could
affect the price of the flight too much,” Aimee Dollase said. “There were other
horses on that plane that got dropped off at Oaklawn, and there were still
others aboard that were going on to South Florida after the stop in New
Orleans.”
Spanky Taking a Second Shot
Veteran New Orleans-born trainer Spanky Broussard
saddled Richard Rudolph and Michael Vranich’s Stonehouse to win Fair
Grounds’ Grade III Mineshaft Handicap Feb. 20 as the final designed local prep
for Saturday’s Grade II New Orleans Handicap on Louisiana Derby Day, and the
conditioner was asked to assess his chances of repeating that upset this
weekend.
“That’s a tough, tough race he’s going to be in Saturday,”
said Broussard Wednesday morning, “but we’re going to take a little shot in
there and see what happens.”
What happened last time was that Stonehouse paid $35.60 to
win when he closed with a late rush to defeat Tom McCarthy’s General
Quarters by a neck, and that owner-trainer of last spring’s Blue Grass
winner was quick to compliment his late replacement gallop boy of the last
three days – Ramiro Ramirez – for his excellent judgment once again
Wednesday morning.
“(General Quarters) was going along at a nice open gallop
this morning when another horse went right by him in a full gallop,” McCarthy
said. “Naturally, my horse started to go right after him but Ramiro was able to
ease him back down gradually. You can’t take too much of a hold in a situation
like that because you’ll cause the horse to swerve, but Ramiro played it cool
once again. He’s an excellent gallop boy – I’ve watched him gallop horses for
years up in Louisville
– and I consider myself lucky to have found him for these last few days.”
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