Coup de Grace, Tapiture Post Stand Out Works

Graded stakes winners Coup de Grace and Tapiture put in the two fastest five-furlong moves on Sunday morning at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, going :59.60 and 1:00 flat, respectively. Both horses are possible to race before the end of the meet at the New Orleans oval, with Coup de Grace the more probable of the two, according to owner Fox Hill Farm.

Trained by Larry Jones, Coup de Grace earned his third bullet in his last four workouts. The son of Tapit’s connections are looking for a sprint allowance for the two-time graded sprint stakes winner before possibly attempting to stretch him out to two turns. Winchell Thoroughbreds’ four-time graded stakes winner Tapiture, on the other hand, has no concrete plans, but the Grade II $400,000 New Orleans Handicap is on trainer Steve Asmussen’s radar.

Tapiture’s stablemate, reigning champion 3-year-old filly Untapable, also put in a five-furlong drill Sunday morning, negotiating the distance in 1:01.80. The Grade I $600,000 Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park on April 10 is possible as her first start of 2015. 

SATURDAY STAKES HAT TRICK FOR GEROUX

Jockey Florent Geroux had a huge day on Saturday at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, winning three stakes, including two graded events. The native of France won the $60,000 Bayou Handicap on Lothenbach Stables’ Eden Prairie, the Grade III $125,000 Fair Grounds Handicap on John Wentworth’s Chocolate Ride and the Grade III $175,000 Rachel Alexandra Stakes on Fletcher and Carolyn Gray’s I’m a Chatterbox. The 28-year-old moved into second in the win standings with 54 victories – well behind runaway leader James Graham’s 81 – and third in the earnings, with $1,629,035 in purses. The hat trick was the fourth time since Jan. 8 that Geroux had won three or more races on a card and his fifth stakes win of the meet moved him into second behind Graham’s eight.

TWO STEP TEMPER TO BLACK GOLD
Trainer Mike Maker confirmed that he will be going after another Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots stakes with a ship-in when his Two Step Temper, owned by Get Away Farm, enters the $60,000 Black Gold Stakes for sophomores over 7½ furlongs on the Stall-Wilson turf course on Feb. 28.

Fresh off a 3-year-old debut that saw the dark bay son of Two Step Salsa outkicked by Coolmore’s highly regarded The Great War in the $75,000 96 Rock Stakes on Turfway Park’s Polytrack over 6½ furlongs, the Florida-bred may appreciate a return to the two turns and grass surface that embodied his first three races, including a win over the Black Gold’s distance at first asking on Nov. 8 at Gulfstream Park West. The $55,000 OBS grad has already shipped in to Fair Grounds for the race and worked on Feb. 16, going a half-mile in :48.80.

Source: Fair Grounds Barn Notes