Bradley has several players

NEW ORLEANS – Trainer Buff Bradley’s first meet-long foray since the early 1990s into Fair Grounds racing has not gotten off to a roaring start, but Bradley has horses of note to run on Saturday’s Road to the Derby Kickoff card.

Chief among them is The Player, the talented 5-year-old who could well be favored in the $75,000 Louisiana, the last of six stakes on a card headlined by the Grade 3, $200,000 Lecomte for 3-year-olds.

In race 3, a six-furlong maiden special weight race for 3-yearolds, Bradley will saddle the Tapit colt Tapability, the first foal to race from the champion Groupie Doll, whom Bradley trained during her career. Race 11, a maiden dirt route, marks the second start for 3-year-old Hours Truly, an attractive Is It True, a half-brother to The Player, who runs one race earlier.

The Player, a handsome chestnut 5-year-old horse, makes his first start since finishing fifth, beaten seven lengths, in the Grade 1 Clark on Nov. 24. The Player had won the Fayette Stakes on Oct. 28 at Keeneland in a performance impressive enough to make him a 9-2 shot in the Clark, but he didn’t really ever get involved in that race.

“He just never got comfortable in the Clark like we thought he would be,” Bradley said Tuesday morning at his Fair Grounds barn. “Early on, I was already thinking it just wasn’t going to be his race, that there was something going on.”

The Player shipped to New Orleans shortly thereafter and has put together an eye-catching series of works – two bullet fivefurlongs, another near-bullet at the distance – under race rider Calvin Borel.

“Calvin’s been on him every time and said he just feels great,” said Bradley, who through Jan. 7 was looking for his first winner this meet after 11 runners.

Twelve were entered in the Louisiana, but The Player will face no more than 10 opponents since Dazzling Gem runs Friday at Oaklawn Park and will be scratched from the Fair Grounds race.

As for Tapability, he has logged plenty of work for his first start and obviously has a star pedigree, but Bradley tamped down expectations for his debut.

“He’s got some ability – we know that,” he said. “He’s a colt and acts like it, but right now we see his attitude is changing, that he’s getting more serious the more work he’s done. He comes out well enough to be gate-carded, but he’s not real sharp out of the gate. He’s got the want-to to go after them even if he spots them a little bit. We might see a little better from him later on.”

The Player’s brother Hours Truly finished sixth sprinting in his career debut but rallied from 12th, and Bradley believes he will be a better route horse. He’ll get the chance to show that early Saturday evening.

Monomoy Girl gets going

The Silverbulletday Stakes here Saturday includes some talented 3-year-old fillies, but another Fair Grounds-based horse in the division, Monomoy Girl, probably is as talented as any of them.

A Tapizar filly trained by Brad Cox, Monomoy Girl won her first three starts last year, including a 6 1/2-length victory in the Rags to Riches Stakes at Churchill, but might have run her best race in her lone loss at 2, finishing second by a neck to Road to Victory in the Grade 2 Golden Rod on Nov. 25 at Churchill.

Monomoy Girl got a brief freshening, Cox said, but has been galloping a few weeks now and had her first workout as a 3-year-old on Jan. 7 when she went three furlongs in 39.20 seconds.

“She actually went from the quarter pole to the seveneighths, the way it worked out,” Cox said. “She breezed great, galloped out great.”

Monomoy Girl had a strong fall schedule and a minimal winter break, and Cox said he is pointing her to the Rachel Alexandra Stakes here Feb. 17.

Also working Jan. 7 was Arklow, who went three furlongs in 38 seconds in his first drill of 2018. Arklow, who won the Grade 2 American Turf on Kentucky Derby Day last spring at Churchill Downs, hasn’t raced since a seventh-place finish in the Hall of Fame Stakes on Aug. 4 at Saratoga. Cox said the hope is for Arklow to make the Mervin Muniz Stakes on the Louisiana Derby card in late March, with a prep race a few weeks earlier. Arklow only has won twice and is eligible for a second-level allowance.

Finley’sluckycharm works

Finley’sluckycharm, among the top older female sprinters during 2017, when she won three graded stakes, had her first work of the winter when she went an easy three furlongs in 38 seconds Sunday.

Finley’sluckycharm ended last year’s campaign with a below-form Breeders’ Cup showing, finishing ninth in the Filly and Mare Sprint, but trainer Bret Calhoun is pointing her to the 2018 Filly and Mare Sprint, which will be run over a Churchill Downs surface Finley’sluckycharm loves.

Calhoun said he plans to run Finley’sluckycharm around the first week of March, then point her to the Madison at Keeneland and the Humana Distaff at Churchill Downs.

“After the Breeders’ Cup, we kept her in the barn, gave her some time, freshened up,” he said. “We put a few two-minute clips in her, then went an easy three-eighths.”

◗ Wonder Gadot, the 3-yearold filly cross-entered Saturday in the Lecomte and the Silverbulletday, is nearly certain to face her own sex in the Silverbulletday, trainer Mark Casse said Tuesday. “Unless there are major scratches in the colt race, [owner Gary Barber] would prefer to run in the filly race,” Casse said.

◗ The featured eighth race (4:35 p.m. Central) Friday at Fair Grounds is a second-level turf-mile allowance with a $40,000 claiming option, and, on paper, it is wildly competitive. Turbo Street is the likely favorite dropping from a pair of stakes races, including a win in the Remington Green, but has no decided edge on any number of rivals.