Photo: CDI
Ten years ago, trainer
Wilson Brown brought Darwin Olson’s appropriately named It’sallinthechase
to the Lecomte to finish third beaten less than a length for the win, and then brought that horse back to finish third in that year’s
Grade II Louisiana Derby before disappointing in the Kentucky Derby. Now he’s ready to try again with Steve Martin’s
Ted’s Folly.
“Every time this colt runs, he fools me,” said Brown Friday morning, shortly after watching the first-run movie
“War Horse” with his wife. “He just lays it all down and tries to be the winner, and for his last six races, that’s what he’s done.
“He’s
a little bitty thing – maybe not even 900 pounds – but he’s got a heck
of a stride on him,” said Brown of Ted’s Folly, who won Remington’s
$300,000 Springboard Mile at last asking Dec. 10. “I did go over to
Larry Jones’ barn to visit with him and take a look at
(2011 Horse of the Year) Havre de Grace. Then I had to come back over here and look at my little guy, and he looked just like a Shetland pony after seeing that horse.
“But
from what my horse has shown me so far, it looks like maybe we belong
in (the Lecomte),” Brown said. “Of course, everything has to go
right for us, but this horse has been getting over this (Fair Grounds)
track like a reindeer. This race will be fun, no matter what happens.
I’m just happy to be in a position to maybe win it.”
MEXICAN-BRED YVETE SANGALO – ONE ‘VIVACIOUS’ FILLY
Trainer
Kari Craddock elected to run Pozo de Luna’s
Yvete Sangalo in Remington’s $50,000 El Gaylord Memorial Stakes Oct. 14 and the daughter of 2007 Lecomte Stakes winner
Hard Spun made a bold late run to win it by 4 1/4-lengths.
With
that in mind, Craddock, who began training her own horses in the early
‘80s and still calls a trailer home as she crisscrosses Thoroughbred
race courses in the Southwest, decided to bring Yvete Sangalo to New
Orleans for Saturday’s
$125,000 Silverbulletday Stakes as the inaugural stepping stone to the
Grade II Fair Grounds Oaks March 31.
“I
am told she is named for a famous Brazilian singer,” said Craddock, in
reference to the Latin Grammy Award-winning Brazilian songstress
Ivete Sangalo, whose style of song could make one wish for fluency in Portuguese.
“I
am told she (the singer) is very vivacious,” Craddock said, in an
unintentional understatement. “So is my filly. “She (the filly) has
now
raced over five different surfaces, and the only one she couldn’t
handle was the grass course at Louisiana Downs
“Yvete
Sangalo is a deep closer,” said Craddock Friday, one day before the
Silverbulletday. “She just loves to make one late run. When I saw
her run in the El Gaylord Memorial I immediately thought about the long
stretch run at Fair Grounds. I think it will suit her perfectly. I
like that long stretch run here. I have a lot of confidence in my
filly.”
Although
not based in New Orleans during the winter, Craddock has invaded Fair
Grounds in past seasons, notably to finish fourth in Fair Grounds’
$60,000 Woodchopper Stakes two seasons ago with
Dakota Gypsy, a gelding she both owns and trains who also finished second buy a neck in Remington’s
$100,000 DeBartolo Memorial Handicap last Sept. 2.
Also, like fellow Silverbulletday contestant
Inny Minnie, who beat her a nose for second in the
Grade III Delta Princess
and is owned by John Ballis and trained by Steve Margolis,
Yvete Sangalo is by Hard Spun, sire of the two sale toppers during the
first day of the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s winter mixed sale
earlier
this week in central Florida.