Sweetsouthernmoon 7-5 Choice in Tenacious

One veteran stakes campaigner currently on a three-race win streak, one 5-year-old mare who waltzed home the heroine in last spring’s $100,000 New Orleans Ladies, and a grass dash face-off between this year’s Grade II Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint runner-up and the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint champion. Together those tests serve as the premier attractions on Saturday’s three-stakes Santa Super Saturday program at Fair Grounds.

The Estate of Oliver Pierce’s Sweetsouthernmoon, who captured a six-furlong sprint at Fair Grounds Dec. 3 but won going the mile distance at Delta Downs before that, has been installed as the 7-5 choice in Saturday’s 47th running of the 1 1/16-mile Tenacious Handicap. 

Based on his three-race victory streak, the Estate of Oliver Pierce’s’ Sweetsouthernmoon is pegged as the morning line favorite, while Jim Tafel’s Fast Alex, a winner here locally at this time last year, is presumed the second choice at 3-1.

From the rail out, with weights and jockeys, the Tenacious Handicap field is: Fast Alex, 118, Robby Albarado; Bob Gary Racing’s Prospect Knight, 110, C. J. McMahon; Terry Hamilton and Robert Morgan’s Gleam of Hope, 118, Corey Lanerie; Sweetsouthernmoon, 119, Diego Saenz; and Don Benge’s Maximus Ruler, 115, Brian Hernandez Jr.