McGee pleased with Dubious Miss

Trainer Paul McGee was pleased with all three of his Louisiana Derby Preview Day stakes contestants when asked about their welfare Sunday morning at Fair Grounds.

“I thought they all ran well, and they all came back well,” said McGee. “I was particularly pleased with the way Dubious Miss ran. Naturally, I would have liked it better if he had won, but I thought he ran well.”

David Holloway’s Dubious Miss was settled just behind the early leaders by jockey Pat Valenzuela in Saturday’s Grade III Fair Grounds Handicap as the final local prep for the Grade II Mervin Muniz Memorial Handicap March 27. The 7-year-old gelding took clear command at the furlong grounds but could not withstand the late surge of the favored Blues Street, owned by Anita Subotnick and trained by Todd Pletcher, but remained easily second best, 4 1 /2-lengths in front of the third-place runner.

Jay Em Ess Stable’s Coy Cat finished third in Saturday’s Pan Zareta Stakes and that same ownership’s Worldly finished seventh in the Grade II Risen Star Stakes for McGee.

Invaders Exit Fair Grounds Monday Morning

A horse van assigned to take the South Florida-based invaders to the airport for their return equine charter to the Sunshine State was moments from being loaded shortly after 9 o’clock Monday morning. 

Its occupants were expected to include Risen Star Stakes winner Discreetly Mine, owned by the Paul Robsham Stable; Fair Grounds Handicap winner Blues Street, owned by Anstu Stables; Tempted to Tapit, owned by Gainesway Stable and runner-up in the Risen Star; WinStar Farm’s Drosselmeyer, fourth in the Risen Star; and Glencrest Farm’s Devil May Care, fifth in the Grade III Silverbulletday Stakes.

Apple Martini Headed to Saturday’s Featured Allen LaCombe Memorial Handicap

Virginia Tarra’s Apple Martini, a full sister to that same ownership’s Mineshaft Handicap third-place finisher Giant Oak, will be among the contestants for Saturday’s featured Allen LaCombe Memorial Handicap for older fillies and mares over the Stall-Wilson turf course.

“We have no delusions of grandeur,” said trainer Neil Pessin Monday morning of the mare who has not started since winning the Illinois Princess Handicap at Hawthorne last Oct. 31. “She needs a race and there’s nowhere else to run her. She’ll be ready for the next one.”