Selection for Saturday, December 15

Mara's Time is entered in the 6th race on Saturday at Fair Grounds. It is a La-bred MSW going six furlongs. This will be Mara's Time second career start. In her debut on the second day of the meet, Mara's Time was bet down to be the second choice at 5-2 in a race with the same conditions as this race, but she disappointed when finishing a well-beaten seventh behind the even-money winning favorite. She drew an outside post that day and had a fairly wide trip.

Mara's Time has had two solid works in the interim. Most importantly, she has a very positive rider switch to Albarado. At 8-1 ML, she is worth considering.

It is funny how things sometimes work out

I came home from Mass on Friday evening to find my front yard looking like a lake. After a few minutes of searching with a flashlight, I found the telltale bubbles that showed the spot where an underground pipe was broken. I figured it was probably a broken sprinkler line that I would take care of on Saturday morning. I shut off my water at the main and went inside to catch the remainder of the Delta Jackpot card. In the Delta Jackpot, Golden Yank ran well through the short stretch while between the dead-heat winners, and for a moment there I thought I might at least get an exacta saver behind the 39-1 Turf War, but the photo showed it was not to be. The jockey aboard Golden Yank lodged a claim of foul against both winners, and the head-on reply showed Golden Yank was squeezed on one side by Z Humor and by a greater degree on the other side by Turf War, but the stewards let the outcome stand.

Saturday morning started with some digging. After going through about 18 inches of soil, I reached some sprinkler pipes. The sprinkler system had been installed by the husband of the family that had previously owned my home. I was soon to learn that he should have left the installation up to the professionals. Although I couldn't see exactly where the pipe was leaking, I figured that I had the suspect pipe, so I called a plumber to cap it and I figured that I would worry about it in the Spring when I would start using my sprinkler system again.

The poor plumber arrived and quickly realized that he shouldn't have taken my call. He said the leaking pipe was actually deeper, so he began digging. He found more sprinkler pipes, but none was the problem. Finally, he said that the leak was probably along the main line. So more digging was done until the hole was about four feet deep. All the plumber could do was to shake his head at the installation of the sprinkler lines. I'm not exaggerating when I write that the exposed sprinkler lines looked like a monument of PVC scaffolding. The plumber said he had never seen anything like it in all his career. The leak ended up being where the sprinkler system had been tied into the main line. The plumber remarked that the original owner had not known what he was doing as evidenced by the maze of PVC and the shoddy connection.

I wasn't very happy to hand the plumber a check for $525 for his work, but I try to be optimistic about things and realized the bill would have been much higher if the leak had been under my house. By this time, the Champions Day Turf had been run and I was down for the day, so I headed inside to focus on the last four races and possibly turn my day around. But not much changed as my remaining selections fizzled. Champions Day was a losing day for me.

But Hollywood was still open and the Native Diver was later on the card. Looking at the past performances, I saw that Heatseeker was competitive in the field and was 20-1 on the morning line. I had bet Heatseeker in the San Diego Handicap at Del Mar when he made a bold run to get the lead in the stretch before tiring late. I made some small wagers on Heatseeker and left to take care of some tasks that had been delayed because of the earlier issues. I forgot about the race until much later that evening when I checked the Racing Form website to see if there were any news about Fair Grounds. Much to my surprise there was an article about Heatseeker paying $63 to win the Native Diver. My winnings did not cover my plumbing bill or my losses at Fair Grounds today, but it was still a nice chunk of change. This game is funny sometimes. Just when you are overwhelmed by the frustration of making bad selections, or making good selections that end up encountering racing trouble or bad rides, up pops a $63 winner.

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.

Vote in Pick 4 contest

During the last Fair Grounds meet I moderated a Pick 4 contest. In order to encourage interest in the contest, contest participants "won" if their Pick 4 sequence included a winning Pick 3 ticket. Some of last year's participants want to make this year's contest a pure Pick 4 contest, while others want to keep the Pick 3 consolation. So I have left it up to the contestants to decide. Go to http://www.nola.com/forums/startinggate/ to cast your vote before noon on Wednesday.

Pago Hop and Thanksgiving Hcp nominations have been posted

Graham Motion and Billy Mott both have two nominated to the Pago Hop. Asmussen has a new runner, New Edition, nominated to the Pago Hop. New Edition ran second in the Virginia Oaks and Lake Placid for Larry Jones this year.

Update on trainers

The Racing Form reports that apprentice Aldo Arboleda, whose agent is Randy Romero, will be riding first call for Richard Dutrow at Fair Grounds this year. Bobby Frankel will also be using the young rider.

Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching

Just 15 days until the gate opens for the first race of the 2007-2008 Fair Grounds meet. About this time every year I start wondering about which prominent trainers other than the usual suspects are going to winter at Fair Grounds. I know that many trainers had reservations about coming to New Orleans last year because of housing and worker issues, but hopefully many of those problems have been sorted out.

Stakes nominations for the Thanksgiving Handicap and Pago Hop close on November 10. Those nominations will give a clearer picture about which new faces may be on the backstretch.