Morley looking for strong start

Season 3 of trainer Tom Morley’s winter string at Fair Grounds, with long-term luck, should be his best yet. In the shorter term, Ninety One Assault can start Morley strong on Day 2 of this Fair Grounds meet.

Ninety One Assault stands a decent chance of marching into the Fair Grounds winner’s circle after the $50,000 Mr. Sulu Stakes on Friday, although the one-mile turf race for older Louisiana-breds looks wildly competitive.

Morley went 6 for 49 two meets ago and 5 for 34 during last year’s meeting. Morley has 20 stalls for the 2018-19 meet compared with 15 last year and will fill several of them with good horses. Carrick, winner of the Grade 1 Secretariat in August at Arlington, has Fair Grounds 2019 turf stakes races on his card following a start in the Hollywood Derby. Morley also has the recent English import Teodoro, the 3-year-old turf filly Queen of Connaught, and turf sprinter Corot slated for Fair Grounds starts.

A 5-year-old Artie Schiller gelding that Morley owns in partnership with Paul Braverman, Ninety One Assault got in five starts at the last Fair Grounds meeting during which his trainer learned a lot about the horse and the horse learned something about racing. Morley, who credits jockey Shaun Bridgmohan for helping him tinker with and improve his horse, began racing Ninety One Assault in blinkers after one start last season. He and Bridghmohan subsequently decided the gelding required very patient tactics.

“It took me a couple of starts to figure out what equipment he wanted,” said Morley, who changed to a simple ring bit during last winter’s experimenting. “He also needed to be ridden like a European horse, to hit the front later. He has a short burst, and you need to use that effectively, arriving as late as possible.”

Ninety One Assault didn’t race between May and September. He shook off rust in a Monmouth comeback run and on Oct. 4 missed winning a firstlevel Belmont Park allowance race by a neck.

“He ran a winning race at Belmont in his last start, but we just arrived two strides too late. To be honest, I was only using that race to get ready for these stakes races at Fair Grounds,” Morley said.

◗ A dozen horses are entered in the Mr. Sulu, and as many as half of them want to race on or near the pace. Barring scratches and a mass abandonment of typical running styles, the Mr. Sulu sets up for a closer like Ninety One Assault or Mageez.

Five-year-old Mageez once appeared to decidedly prefer grass to dirt, but that dynamic has changed over time and he exits a solid second-place finish behind Mr. Sulu entrant Sir Genghis in the $100,000 Gold Cup over one mile at Delta Downs. Like Ninety One Assault, Mageez needs to be delivered very late in the game, and perhaps whoever makes the last move Friday wins.