Debut winner Desert Ride ready to roll in allowance

NEW ORLEANS – It was 50 years ago that Neil Howard began working at the racetrack. Been a mere 40 since he had his first starter as a trainer. Howard won the Preakness Stakes with Summer Squall, trained a Horse of the Year in Mineshaft. So, there you go: The man has been around, seen thousands of horses across the whole range of equine talent come through the revolving door of a racing stable.

Howard can win with a firsttime starter, but he won’t push a horse to a fast debut performance: His 77 debut runners the last five years, DRF Formulator shows, have yielded seven winners. Now, during that same span, Howard has started 18 horses off in a race of one mile or farther. Only one of those horses won. Her name is Desert Ride, and she makes her second career start in the featured sixth race Thursday at Fair Grounds.

One more statistical nugget from the Howard oeuvre. Among those seven debut winners, five made their second start in a straight allowance race or an allowance race with a claiming option, and those starters have produced two wins and two second-place finishes. A debut win can strain a horse, but in Howard’s case, it appears to boost future performance rather than be a drag on it.

Howard, taking care of some desk work in his barn office after training ended Monday morning at Fair Grounds, said Desert Ride had from all outward appearances taken her first start well, both physically and mentally.

“She’s got a really good mind,” Howard said. “That’s one of her strengths.”

Shaun Bridgmohan worked Desert Ride before her debut and advised Howard to run her two turns straightaway. The filly broke slowly under Bridgmohan in her Jan. 17 start, a one-mile turf maiden here, was last at the half-mile pole and 10th past the three-furlong marker, but she bolted home with 23.23-second final quartermile (more than a second faster than any of her rivals) and won going away. The Beyer Speed Figure came back a modest 61, but final time couldn’t tell the whole tale in this case.

Desert Ride, an Ontario homebred by Candy Ride owned by Sam-Son Farm, faces eight rivals in another one-mile race. The competition, headed by Unapologetic Me, Spider Dance, and Beautiful Ballad, clearly surpasses what Desert Ride beat first time out, but Desert Ride can improve enough to handle the jump, hopefully at a fair price.

The supporting feature is race 8, another first-level turf allowance, this one for older horses at about 5 1/2 furlongs.