Beat the Blues Mardi Gras Favorite
Martin Racing Stable & Dan and Deb Morgan’s Beat the Blues, twice graded stakes-placed during the summer of 2012, has been installed as the tepid 5-2 morning line favorite when she faces five other older fillies and mares in Tuesday’s $75,000 Mardi Gras Stakes at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots.
The Mardi Gras, to be contested this year as a six-furlong sprint on the main track, serves as the showcase event for the only Tuesday racing program of the 2012-2013 Fair Grounds season. The scheduled Fat Tuesday first race post time is 1 p.m.
Trained by Bret Calhoun, Beat the Blues has been idle since finishing third beaten less than two lengths in Saratoga’s Grade II Honorable Miss Handicap last Aug. 3. Previously the 6-year-old mare finished third in Monmouth’s Blue Sparkler in July but before that was the runner-up in the Grade III Winning Colors last June at Churchill Downs. Miguel Mena rides.
Capable of providing strong competition for Beat the Blues is Quarter Pole Club III’s My My My Maria – pegged as the co-second choice at 3-1 in the early Mardi Gras line. This 5-year-old mare was the 1 3/4-length winner of the $75,000 Pan Zareta Stakes at Fair Grounds in her last start Jan. 12 and was clearly best in a second-level allowance and $40,000 optional claiming sprint at the Crescent City oval in December. Brian Hernandez Jr. gets the mount.
Not to be discounted in the Mardi Gras is Adele Dilschneider and Claiborne Farm’s Ire, also predicted at 3-1 in the early line. Ire finished second to My My My Maria in their December faceoff here but has since won in a second level $40,000 optional claiming affair Jan. 25 at the local oval. Two-time Fair Grounds defending jockey champion Rosie Napravnik is up.
Completing the Mardi Gras field is Richard, Bertram and Elaine Klein’s Good Deed, Shaun Bridgmohan, 7-2; Agave Racing’s Monono, Richard Eramia, 10-1; Jerry Jamgotchian’s Moonlit Malibu, Jesse Campbell, 15-1; and Naveed Chowhan’s Flashy Lassie, John Jacinto, 20-1 in the morning line.