Good Deed Heads Field in Pan Zareta

Richard and Bertram Klein’s four-time stakes winner and local track record-setter Good Deed heads a field of six fillies and mares for Saturday’s featured $60,000 Pan Zareta Stakes at Fair Grounds Race Course.  Fresh off a course and distance victory where the daughter of Broken Vow lowered the 5½-furlong turf mark to 1:02.31 in runaway fashion, the firm turf-loving Steve Margolis-trained homebred has been training forwardly since that Dec. 14 race and enters the race off a sharp bullet breeze on Dec. 29 in :48.40. 

To be ridden again by Brian Hernandez, Jr., Good Deed was second last year as the 3-5 favorite in the Pan Zareta when the race was contested over a soft course she did not relish.  This year, she will break from post four and exits a race in which she defeated three of her five competitors on Saturday.

One of those rivals is none other than Good Deed’s conqueror in last year’s Pan Zareta, defending champion Seeking Ms Shelley. The veteran 9-year-old mare has not been victorious in five starts since her 1½-length triumph over the soggy going last January, but she did race gamely when fourth last time out behind Good Deed for trainer Joe Duhon and owner/breeder Dream Walkin Farms.  The stalking three-time stakes winner will be ridden by Robby Albarado from post three.

The second- and third-place finishers from said allowance event, G M B Racing’s Tom Amoss-trained Angie’s Prim Lady and Joseph Novogratz’s Hugh Robertson-trained Stoupinator, look ripe to improve off their five-length drubbings astern Good Deed.  The front-running Angie’s Prim Lady will be making her second start off the claim for her astute meet-leading trainer, while the late-running Stoupinator is well-suited to the daunting Fair Grounds stretch – especially if a good pace develops – and will hope for a cleaner trip than last time when she was blocked in mid-stretch.  Angie’s Prim Lady breaks from the outside post six under meet-leading rider James Graham and Stoupinator gets the return services of Francisco Torres from post two. 

Louie Roussel, III’s Starship Duchess enters off a game victory over the main track on Nov. 28 in which she closed her final eighth in :12 flat and finished the six-furlong allowance in a spritely 1:10.31.  A return to the turf could be welcome for the daughter of Speightstown who has never been beaten in three Fair Grounds starts – including two over the turf course and one at the 5½-furlong distance.  E. T. Baird is booked to ride from the rail in what will be the journeyman’s first mount of 2015.

Completing the field and possibly the proverbial X-factor in the Pan Zareta is Hilary Pridham’s One Time Only.  Third last out when stretching out to two turns in her debut for trainer Mike Stidham in the $50,000 Blushing K. D. Stakes at Fair Grounds on Dec. 18, the daughter of Lemon Drop Kid out of the fleet stakes mare Salty Romance is perhaps best when sprinting – including an allowance victory over six grassy furlongs on Oct. 5 at Belmont Park.  Forest Boyce rides from post five.

Source: Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots