Tourmaline is a crystal boron silicate mineral that is
classified as a semi-precious stone.
Tourmaline the horse is a 3-year-old filly who is
dismissed as the 20-1 longest shot in the morning line for Saturday’s $400,000
Fair Grounds Oaks and has made only two starts, both at six furlongs and
five months apart. Did her owners Mike Walker and Wayne Ukens find a gem when
the picked her out?
“She’s a big, tall, long, leggy filly who’s a good mover
and we think she’ll go long,” said trainer Lon Wiggins, son of Hal
Wiggins, who trained 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra to win
the 2009 Fair Grounds Oaks and then go on to win the Kentucky Oaks. “She
gallops that way and she’s made that way. She ran real well in her first start
last September and we took her to Keeneland and Churchill, but she developed a
little shin problem there and we had to stop on her. But then she came back
(Feb. 27) at Tampa
after that long layoff and just missed by a half-length and was closing fast at
the wire.
“Her owners are just a couple of good ole boys from Oklahoma
and they want to see where the horse takes them,” Wiggins said. “Lucky for me,
they asked me to train her for them. She had a nice work at Tampa
(four furlongs in 50.40) on Monday and then I brought her up here.”
Wiggins, along with his now-retired father and the rest of
the Wiggins family, are all in New
Orleans to attend Rachel
Alexandra’s induction into the Fair Grounds Hall of Fame Thursday evening.
Trainer Steve Margolis, who will saddle Gold
Square’s Little Miss
Holly as well as Thoroughbred Futures Racing II’s Switching Gears in
Saturday’s Fair Grounds Oaks, reported during training hours Thursday morning
that all was well with the pair.
“I like the way both my fillies are doing right now,” said
Margolis. “It looks like Josie Carroll’s horse (Donver Stable’s Inglorious
is the one to beat – and she looks tough – but I’ve got Edgar Prado
to ride Little Miss Holly and Shaun Bridgmohan ride Switching Gears for
me after he won with her in her last start.”