Snug flees Star Guitar at Louisiana Downs

Snug is sort of the Sham of the older Louisiana-bred ranks. He would arguably be his division’s leader were it not for Star Guitar, just as many believed Sham would have been the top 3-year-old back in 1973 had he not been part of the same crop as Secretariat.

Snug, 6, played runner-up to Star Guitar in the two richest Louisiana-bred stakes on the calendar last winter, the $150,000 Louisiana Champions Day Classic at Fair Grounds in December, and the $200,000 Premier Night Championship at Delta Downs in February.

Saturday, he gets away from Star Guitar in the $50,000 John Franks Memorial, one of two statebred stakes that open the stakes schedule at Louisiana Downs. Star Guitar is passing on the one-mile turf race to await a main track stakes at Evangeline Downs.

Snug, meanwhile, is a multiple winner on the grass. He took the $100,000 Louisiana Cup Turf Classic last spring at Louisiana Downs, darting to a 1 1/2-length win to earn one of the best Beyer Figures of his career, a 91.