Street Fancy Being Overlooked in Fair Grounds Oaks

It is difficult to believe that the lone Grade I winner in the field for the Grade II $400,000 TwinSpires.com Fair Grounds Oaks is being overlooked, but by all accounts that seems to be the case this week at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots. A late-running and lightly raced type, Street Fancy is a daughter of Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense out of mare Bold Angel, a daughter of Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Cat Thief. Needless to say, stamina is something the winner of December’s Grade I $300,000 Starlet at Los Alamitos has in spades. What might be more of a worry is shipping across the country from the Phil D’Amato trainee’s Santa Anita base and competing against an improving group of fellow sophomore fillies.

 

“She’s actually perfect,” Chris Davis, D’Amato’s assistant reported. “She arrived yesterday and she shipped really well. I think she has a great shot. She won a Grade I and made her run from the three-eighths-pole that day and just kept coming. If she runs like that, she’s going to be tough.

 

“I think people might be throwing her out because of her last race,” Davis continued. “She got rambunctious in the gate that day and hit her head when the sprang it open and was a bit dazed the rest of the way. We schooled her at the gate today and will school her again on Friday.”

 

Last out, in the Grade II $300,000 Las Virgenes at her home track, she finished last of six, beaten 28 lengths by divisional leader Songbird. The effort was the first poor showing of her four-race career. A winner on debut in October going 5½ furlongs, she later was third in the $100,000 Desi Arnaz Stakes at Del Mar going seven furlongs before winning the Starlet at the same 1 1/16-miles distance as Saturday’s Fair Grounds Oaks.

 

Street Fancy has drawn post six of eight fillies and has the riding services of Jose Lezcano.

 

 

The average Fair Grounds and Race Course & Slots fan does not know what was the bigger shock on Feb. 20: the fact that Rosemont Farm’s homebred 74-1 longshot Venus Valentine won the Grade II $200,000 Rachel Alexandra – or that a Tom Amoss trainee went off at 74-1. Either way, both Venus Valentine and Amoss return for Saturday’s Grade II $400,000 Fair Grounds Oaks looking to prove that the late-running daughter of Congrats’ effort was no fluke.

 

“She’s doing fine,” Amoss said. “I’ve had no setbacks with her and she’s trained well. You can’t change a horse’s style too much, but I would like to see her a little more involved in the race.”

 

A winner of two of five starts, Venus Valentine closed from 14 lengths back in the Rachel Alexandra under Corey Lanerie to win by a length over a tiring Midnight On Oconee. She faces that rival, as well as beaten favorite Stageplay again in the Fair Grounds Oaks. The chestnut filly has been training forwardly, including three works since that effort, topped by a half-mile in 49.20 on Mar. 17.

 

 

Gallant Stable’s Majestic Harbor returned to his winning ways last month with a gritty victory in the Grade III $125,000 Mineshaft Handicap on Feb. 20 – defeating William S. Farish’s Eagle in a stretch-long battle under Corey Lanerie and winning for the ninth time in 39 career starts. A Grade I winner and earner of nearly a million dollars, the son of Rockport Harbor has been training forwardly since and will look to win back-to-back in the Grade II $400,000 New Orleans Handicap on Saturday for trainer Paul McGee.

 

“He came out of the Mineshaft very well,” McGee said. “He has had a few good breezes and looked good doing them. The mile and an eighth I think will be a plus with him. He’s won going a mile and a half, so he has the stamina. He doesn’t have to be on the lead, either,” McGee continued. “Corey knows him well and he can stalk if he needs to, but he will be forwardly placed.”

 

Prior to the Mineshaft, the three-time Fair Grounds winner was fifth after a rough trip in the Listed $75,000 Louisiana Stakes on Jan. 16 going a mile and 70 yards.

 

“That was a throwout,” McGee explained. “I tried to freshen him and may have overdone it a bit after the (Grade II $250,000) Hawthorne Gold Cup (on Nov. 28). Then he got clobbered turning for home, so I drew a line through that race.