Santa Super Saturday program at Fair Grounds Dec. 19 – originally scheduled as a five-stakes package – gets more gifts wrapped under its tree when the four stakes postponed from the Dec. 12 Louisiana Champions Day are to be run as originally drawn.
The expanded 13-race program will begin with a first post time of noon CST and will include the $150,000 Louisiana Champions Day Classic, $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Turf, $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Sprint, and $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Ladies Sprint – all of which were postponed after torrential rains forced the abandonment of the Dec. 12 races midway through the afternoon.
Brittlyn Stable’ Star Guitar, 3-5 morning-line choice in the Classic, could become the fourth horse in the 19-year-history of Fair Grounds’ Louisiana Champions Day to win three times on Champions Day should he prove successful in the Classic, and Wachtel Stables, Brous Stable’s and Jerry D. Lee’s Desert Wheat, 2-1 morning-line favorite in the Turf, could return to the winner’s circle in this year’s Turf after winning the 2006 renewal, running fourth in 2007, and missing by a neck when second in last year’s edition of the grass test.
Heading the original five Santa Super Saturday races is the inaugural running of the $100,000 Daily Racing Form Distaff, a nine-furlong test for older fillies and mares that is headed by 9-5 morning-line choice War Echo. The filly won last winter’s grade III Silverbulletday Stakes before being sidelined by injury.
The other four races originally scheduled for Santa Super Saturday are the 59th running of the $60,000 Sugar Bowl Stakes for 2-year-olds that will be possible Louisiana Derby (gr. II) candidates after the first of the year; the 50th renewal of the $60,000 Letellier Memorial for juvenile fillies that might be pointed for this spring’s Fair Grounds Oaks (gr. II); the 17th running of the $60,000 Esplanade Stakes for filly and mare sprinters; and the fourth running of the $60,000 Bonapaw for older grass sprinters.
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