Fair Grounds opens with new Pick 6, Louisiana-bred stakes
Fair Grounds will launch a new 20-cent minimum Pick 6 wager, the Crescent City 6, when the track opens its 2025–26 Thoroughbred meet Thursday.
Modeled after the popular Derby City 6 at Churchill Downs, if multiple bettors correctly select all six winners in the Crescent City 6, 90% of that day’s pool is divided among those players and the remaining 10% is added to the carryover. If no player hits the wager, the full pool carries over to the next racing day. The entire jackpot is paid out only when there is a single winning ticket with all six winners.
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Fair Grounds received approval to offer the wager to bettors during a Louisiana State Racing Commission meeting in New Orleans on Monday. The Crescent City 6 replaces the previously offered traditional Pick 6.
The Crescent City 6 will be offered every live racing day, spanning the final six races on each card. With its 15% takeout, one of the lowest rates among multi-race wagers in North America, the Crescent City 6 is expected to become a major attraction for horseplayers during the Fair Grounds season.
In addition to the Crescent City 6, Fair Grounds will offer a full wagering menu that includes $1 win, place and show; $1 exactas; 50-cent trifectas and 10-cent superfectas on all qualifying races. The track again will feature rolling $1 daily doubles and 50-cent Pick 3s; 50-cent Pick 4s 50-cent Pick 5s.
Fair Grounds’ 154th meet runs through March 22.
Opening week features Louisiana-bred stakes
Opening week features six Louisiana-bred stakes, each offering a $100,000 purse. The first three race days set the stage for Louisiana champions day on Saturday, Dec. 14.
Scheduled as race 4, the Delmar R. Caldwell Memorial kicks off Saturday’s trio of stakes. Seven older fillies and mares are set to go six furlongs, led by Norman Stables’ Secret Faith. Exiting a win over Free Like a Girl in October’s Magnolia at Delta Downs, the nine-time-winning 3-year-old trained by Jayde Gelner has beaten every state-bred she has faced but one – Stonestreet Stables and Peter Leidel’s Blue Fire, who draws the rail for trainer Steve Asmussen in Saturday’s Caldwell.
Single Malt Stables’s Geaux Sugar headlines Saturday's Andrew Ney Memorial, scheduled as race 7. The 5-year-old, trained by Keith Bourgeois, looks to repeat against eight older males in the six-furlong sprint. The Jacob V. Morreale Memorial attracted 11, led by Delanie J Calais Jr.’s Cosmic Train, who went from last to first to take last year’s edition for trainer Jerry Delhomme. Written for older males at 1 mile 70 yards, the Morreale will close out Saturday’s nine-race card.
The meet begins Thursday with a nine-race card that features the John Valene Memorial and the Joseph R. Peluso Memorial, slated as races 5 and 6, respectively.
With $407,886 in career earnings, Tom Galvin’s Norah G, trained by Patricia West, headlines a field of six older fillies and mares going 1 mile 70 yards in the Valene. Seasoned in Kentucky, Allied Racing Stables’s homebred Our Moneyman will face seven juvenile males in Thursday’s six-furlong Peluso. The Mr. Money colt trained by Bret Calhoun broke his maiden last out at Keeneland.
Coteau Grove Farms’s homebred Little Miss Curlin leads a field of nine juvenile fillies in Friday’s Donovan L. Ferguson Memorial. The Pat Devereux trainee dressed to impress on debut, beating nine foes by over 4 1/4 lengths. The lone stakes on Friday’s card is slated as race 7.