Thursday, December 6, 2007

A look at some maiden winners at Fair Grounds

Looking at the results through the first eight days of the meet, I think three juveniles ran particularly noteworthy races when breaking their maidens. The first is the La-bred colt, Star Guitar, who crushed a state-bred field for the Al Stall barn on Thanksgiving. Star Guitar, who will run on Champions Day, is by the good miler Quiet American and out of the Malagra mare, Minit Towinit, who was a multiple stakes winner against La-breds as a 3yo.

Another impressive winner on Thanksigiving was the Mike Stidham runner, Sagaponack. Although Sagaponack's winning time was 2/5ths of a second slower than Star Guitar's, Sagaponack won in a very professional manner as he finished well after being pressed early through a fast opening quarter. Sagaponack fetched $525,000 at Keeneland's April 2yo in training sale.

Stidham debuted a promising 2yo filly, Tizaqueena, on Sunday in a one mile MSW. Tizaqueena faced two obstacles in her first race. She was racing around two turns, and the pacesetter opened up a huge early advantage. But Tizaqueena passed with flying colors. She settled in third, moved up to challenge the leader midway on the turn, and then pulled away in stretch. It was a very impressive performance.

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