Fair Grounds: Faucheux is top trainer, Gutierrez leads jockeys

Fair Grounds wrapped up its 151st season of racing on Sunday, having offered the richest stakes schedule in Louisiana history at $8.5 million.

The pinnacle was Louisiana Derby day on Saturday, which set a single-card record for purses offered in Louisiana at $3.1 million. With 12 new stakes and a total of 65, the meet began Nov. 18.

After trailing both the Bret Calhoun and Brad Cox early, New Orleans native Ron Faucheux finished with a flourish to capture his third consecutive training title with 42 wins. Known as “Mr. March” after an amazing hot streak that saw his barn win 23 races between Feb. 22 and closing day, Faucheux swept the $75,000 Crescent City Derby and Oaks. He also strung together five wins in a row over March 8 and 9.

The race for the title went down to the last day as Bret Calhoun, the early leader who was in search of his first local crown, and four time-champ Brad Cox were both in striking range but instead settled for a tie for second with 37 wins apiece.

With 64 wins, Rey Gutierrez captured the first leading rider title of his young career. The 27-year-old won many for trainer Bret Calhoun, who had a banner meet and accounted for about half of Gutierrez’s wins. In just his second year at Fair Grounds, the rest of Gutierrez’s scores came for a host of trainers, proving how well Gutierrez has been received by local connections. His top moment came when Southlawn posted an upset in the Fair Grounds Oaks, offering redemption for Gutierrez after he and his mount Hidden Connection finished a diminishing nose shy of Echo Zulu last year.

James Graham, who was denied his third consecutive title and fourth overall, finished second with 53 wins. Jareth Loveberry vied for the title most of the meet, but he missed three weeks with a fractured fibula and finished with 50 wins, tied for third with Corey Lanerie.

With 20 wins from 137 starts in their first full meet at Fair Grounds, L and G Racing Stable won the owners’ race, as trainer Cesar Govea saddled each score. L and G Racing Stable was formed only two years ago. At a 33 percent clip, Godolphin impressed with 13 wins, including with homebred star-filly Pretty Mischievous.

Two milestones were reached during the met, as four-time leading trainer Brad Cox and two-time leading jockey Florent Geroux both won their 2,000th race. On Jan. 26, Cox legged up Geroux on his 2,000th winning mount, Warrant, and Geroux was onboard when Bishops Bay broke his maiden on the Feb. 18 Risen Star undercard, giving Cox win 2,000.

Away from Fair Grounds last year, Geroux returned successfully, scoring with a colony-best 32 percent of his mounts for a total of 33 visits to the winner’s circle.