Stall gets off to blazing start with four opening-day wins

The opening-day past performances at the Fair Grounds meet suggested trainer Al Stall was set up for a monster day, but as anyone in racing knows, lining up the ducks typically is a lot easier than shooting them down. But in this case, the Stall barn executed as well as planned, winning four of the 10 races this past Saturday.

“Days like that, things all have to go right,” Stall said Tuesday.

My Miss Chiff got the party started winning the $50,000 Happy Ticket Stakes by 1 1/2 lengths while making her first start since a third-place finish in the May 19 Miss Preakness Stakes. Stall then scored a natural hat trick, winning races 7 and 8 with first-time starters Minit to Stardom and Divine Bean, and running one-two in race 9 with Feisty Embrace and Andthebandplayedon.

Minit to Stardom and Divine Bean, each favored, both are Brittyln Stables homebreds by Brittlyn’s own sire and former Stall trainee Star Guitar. They ran nearly identical times in 5 1/2-furlong Louisiana-bred maiden races, Minit to Stardom getting a 65 Beyer Speed Figure, Divine Bean 66.

“We liked them, but first-time starters, you never know how they’re going to act and break and things like that,” Stall said. “You put in the time, school them, and hope it works out.”

Divine Bean, a colt, is bound for the Louisiana Champions Day Juvenile, while the filly Minit to Stardom will go to the Champions Day Lassie. My Miss Chiff equaled her careerbest 82 Beyer and runs next in the Champions Day Ladies Sprint.

“That filly got in a ton of trouble, pushed out from the inside and hammered from the outside, but she’s all heart,” Stall said. “She’s an Into Mischief, and they run through brick walls.”

Stall said Andthebandplayedon also will start in the Champions Day Lassie, and that the filly Seaside Candy could face males in the Champions Day Classic since the Champions Day Ladies has been moved to turf this year.

As for the hot start, it might not be confined to one day: During November last year at Fair Grounds, Stall went 6-3-0 with 11 starters.

Girvin getting time off on farm

Girvin, among the best 3-year-olds of 2017, is on holiday at a Florida farm but should rejoin trainer Joe Sharp’s stable at Fair Grounds early next year.

Girvin won the $1 million Louisiana Derby earlier this year at Fair Grounds and went on to capture the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational July 30 at Monmouth Park. But after finishing 11th in the Travers Stakes and fifth in the Sept. 24 Oklahoma Derby, he was sent to owner Brad Grady’s Grand Oaks farm for a freshening.

“We turned him out right after the Oklahoma Derby,” Sharp said. “They have a full training facility over there, and they’ll get him legged up. He’ll probably be back to us by the end of February.”

Sharp said he and Grady haven’t yet mapped out a 2018 campaign for Girvin “other than to keep running him.”

“You just hope they come back good,” Sharp said.

Sharp last winter ran strings at Fair Grounds and in south Florida, but he said he will be stabled only in New Orleans this winter.

Finley’sluckycharm eyes 2018

Finley’sluckycharm came out of a ninth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint in good condition and is taking it easy at Fair Grounds in preparation for a 2018 campaign her connections hope ends with another Breeders’ Cup start.

Finley’sluckycharm, who is owned by Carl Moore, won four stakes this year and was 7-1 in the Filly and Mare Sprint, but she never got involved in the race and was beaten nearly 14 lengths by upset winner Bar of Gold.

“She was getting over the track good during the week and I was happy with everything, and then the day of the race it was just a different track,” trainer Bret Calhoun said.

Calhoun said that jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. told him Finley’sluckycharm was “just spinning her wheels out there.”

“She came out of it fine, though,” Calhoun said. “We’ll just give her 30 to 45 days off.”

Calhoun said the tentative plan is to give Finley’sluckycharm her first 2018 start March 3 at Oaklawn in the Spring Fever Stakes, though he’d be happy to start the mare off at Fair Grounds if the track could make an allowance race go. Finley’sluckycharm will be aimed at races like the Madison at Keeneland and the Humana Distaff at Churchill this spring, with an eye toward the 2018 BC Filly and Mare Sprint.

“We know she likes Churchill, and the Breeders’ Cup is there,” Calhoun said.

◗ Hallie Belle figures to be heavily favored in the Friday feature, race 8, a first-level filly and mare turf-route allowance.