Local Hero puts in fast drill for Louisiana Derby

Local Hero worked six furlongs Monday in 1:12.40, a fast time by Fair Grounds standards, as he prepares to race April 1 in the Grade 2, $1 million Louisiana Derby.

Steve Asmussen, who trains Local Hero for Bob Edwards’s e Five Racing, said last week that Local Hero had come out of his third-place finish in the Risen Star at Fair Grounds “in good physical shape” and was “on target for the Louisiana Derby.” Following the Feb. 25 Risen Star, Local Hero worked an easy half-mile in 50.80 on March 6 and five furlongs in 1:01 on March 13 as lead-ins to his major Louisiana Derby work Monday.

Local Hero had worked in company March 13 and was in company again Monday, breezing with the older horse Iron Fist, the winner of the Maxxam Gold Cup at Sam Houston in his most recent start. Local Hero’s training pattern is encouraging, and with only four starts – a pair of seven-furlong maiden races at 2, then a maiden win and his Risen Star third in twoturn tries this year – Local Hero should still have room to grow.

And what he especially needs to do is grow up. Local Hero held through a fast pace to impressively clear the maiden ranks Jan. 26, but in the Risen Star, he was too headstrong early under Florent Geroux, compromising his late energy.

“That is definitely something we have been working on,” Asmussen said. “He’s a very manageable horse in the morning. He just needs to go out and do it in the afternoon.”

Local Hero is among three horses from the Risen Star being pointed to the Louisiana Derby, along with Girvin, the Risen Star winner, and fourthplace finisher Guest Suite.

Guest Suite, who won the Lecomte Stakes before the Risen Star, worked five furlongs in 1:00 on Monday at Fair Grounds, the fastest of 22 works at the distance. Girvin worked Saturday, going five furlongs in 1:01 in company with Cool Arrow.

Farrell holding form for Oaks

After a modest if successful 3-year-old debut in the Silverbulletday Stakes in January, Farrell looked more like the filly who romped to victory last fall in the Grade 2 Golden Rod when she won the Rachel Alexandra Stakes on Feb. 25 by more than three lengths.

Farrell came out of the Rachel Alexandra at Fair Grounds in great shape and continued to suggest that she is a filly on the rise with a five-furlong work in 1:00 on Saturday. Her work was the fastest of 54 at the distance that morning.

“Farrell’s work was excellent,” trainer Wayne Catalano said. “Nice and smooth, a medium five-eighths. It was fastest of 54, but she did it nice and easy.”

Farrell might not even have to improve to win the April 1 Fair Grounds Oaks, which is coming up a modest race, but she will need to continue on her upward trajectory if she’s to match up with the likes of Unique Bella in the Kentucky Oaks.

“She’s getting better, more mature all the time,” Catalano said. “So far, it’s all kind of worked out for us. I wasn’t going to run in [the Silverbulletday] at first, but the way the race was coming up, I did, and we got that comeback race out of the way. I mapped out a training schedule, and so far, it’s worked out.”

Sweet spot for Chocolate Ride

At this time the last two years, Chocolate Ride was preparing for the Grade 2 Muniz Memorial. Chocolate Ride won the 2015 Muniz, capping a Fair Grounds season where he rose from a middling first-level allowance runner to serious graded-stakes horse. Last year, he was a solid fourth in the race, beaten three lengths.

But expectations have been scaled back for Chocolate Ride this season, and rather than the Muniz, he runs in an optional claimer at about a mile on turf on a 10-race program unusually strong for a Thursday.

The 7-year-old Chocolate Ride just has not quite been able to put everything together at this meet. He returned from a layoff of more than seven months with a close fourth-place finish Dec. 17 in the Diliberto Memorial. But Chocolate Ride was supposed to move forward in his second race back from his break, the Jan. 21 Col. E.R. Bradley, and he really didn’t, checking in third, beaten almost three lengths by his stablemate Western Reserve.

Chocolate Ride might not have cared for turf in the Bradley that was softer than he prefers, but he should care for the class drop in Thursday’s ninth race. Though the field is a solid one for the class level, Chocolate Ride, who drew the rail, was installed as the 6-5 morning-line favorite. There are six others for turf and two, including the up-and-coming Egyptian, entered for the main track only, though the local forecast suggests Thursday’s races will stay on turf.

With Florent Geroux in Dubai to ride Gun Runner, Shaun Bridgmohan gets a shot on Chocolate Ride, who is trained by Brad Cox for GenStar Thoroughbreds. Chip Leader and Glorious Empire appear to constitute the primary opposition.