Poker Player Considered for Woodchopper

 

Gary and Mary West’s Poker Player continued on the comeback trail with another solid work on Wednesday morning at Fair Grounds Race Course, negotiating five panels in 1:02.60 for trainer Wayne Catalano. The move was the eighth in as many weeks of four- and five-furlong preparations for the gray Kentucky-bred colt’s first race since an eighth in the Grade III Lexington Stakes at Keeneland on April 19.

 

According to assistant conditioner Fernando Canteria, the son of the late Harlan’s Holiday is under serious consideration for the $60,000 Woodchopper Stakes on Dec. 27 at the New Orleans oval. Over a mile on the turf, the Woodchopper is one of the last stakes of the year restricted to sophomores and in 2013 was won by Martin Racing Stable’s Marchman, who would use the event to catapult him to a solid 2014 in which he won two graded stakes, placed in two others and competed in the Grade I Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. 

 

Poker Player’s best performance to date was an eye-opening win in the Grade III Bourbon Stakes as a juvenile over the then-Polytrack main surface of Keeneland in which he defeated eventual Belmont Stakes third-place finisher Medal Count and graded stakes winner Bashart. That performance would earn Poker Player a chance to roll the dice in the Grade I Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf – a race in which he finished mid-pack.

 

Source: Fair Grounds Barn Notes