Left Gets Shot in Louisiana Derby

Adele Dilschneider and Claiborne Farm’s Left could be forgiven if he was feeling somewhat, uh, “left out” in all the hype leading up to this year’s $1 million Louisiana Derby.

The son of Arch is undefeated in his only two lifetime starts, both at Fair Grounds this season – one on dirt and one on turf – and will be saddled in Saturday’s local Grade II Derby by trainer Al Stall Jr., who has never finished out of the money with any horse he has started in a Louisiana Derby.

However, Left, who has worked five times this winter along with those same connections’ highly regarded Bind (who runs in Saturday’s fourth race), was pegged at an intriguing 10-1 in the Louisiana Derby morning line.

“Left is just a fun horse to be around,” said New Orleans native Stall earlier this week. “He’s something of a stable pet because nothing seems to bother him. He’s a gelding, and he got kicked by another horse out in a field while he was still a baby, so the left side of his face is all pushed in and he has tears running constantly out of that left eye. But he just keeps taking everything in stride. All we have to do is throw some oats at him a couple of times a day and he’s happy.”

From three past Louisiana Derby starters, Stall saddled Claiborne’s Terrain to finish third in 2009, B. Wayne Hughes’ My Pal Charlie to finish second in 2008 and that same ownership’s Ketchikan for a second in 2007.