Weekend Winners Club

Saturday March 26
Fair Grounds, New Orleans
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Gun Runner handily won the Louisiana Derby G2, proving his Risen Star victory was no fluke. In fact, he won it in much the same fashion, moving to 3rd at the half, 2nd at ¾ then taking the lead in the stretch and powering away towards the wire under Florent Geroux.
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This proves the Candy Ride colt is the real deal, not just that Steve Asmussen owns this track. He broke his maiden at Churchill before winning an allowance at Keeneland, then losing by 3 in the Churchill slop. Now he’s rattled off two graded prep wins and is the leader in the Derby Championship series again with 151.
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Tom’s Ready was a long shot coming in at 30-1 after finishing up the track in the Risen Star, going 4 wide and tiring and retreating. Tom was Ready this time, charging at the right time late to pick up 2nd place after the rider change to BJ Hernandez.
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Dazzling Gem moved forward again in his third lifetime outing, running in 2nd for the first half and holding on for a 3rd place finish for Brad Cox at 8-1.
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Favorite Mo Tom had a decent trip this time, but his bad luck lied with the pace, which was a bit dawdling and not good at all for the late runner. He moved too late and ended up splitting a lot of horses in the stretch to pick up 4th, and only 10 points.
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For a horse that ranks in the top five of our Derby Dozen, and will likely stay there, he’s already run 3 races this year and only has 32 points, 11th in Derby standings with 7 more big points races coming up.
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All 7 the winners and 6 runners up in those races will automatically achieve more Derby points, plus others could add 20 to their current totals for 3rd. In other words, he will likely needs to run in another points race in about 3 weeks or less to qualify, then run again in Kentucky a few weeks later. Decision time for Tom Amoss.
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Others who disappointed were Holy Bull runner up Greenpointcrusader and Forevamo, who ran 2nd to Gun Runner in the Risen Star. They will need to run in another points race again to qualify for the Kentucky Derby. Gun Runner is the only one that can rest on his laurels right now.
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Video and results chart below:
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Results
POS # Horse Win Place Show
1 1 Gun Runner $9.80 $5.60 $3.60
2 7 Tom’s Ready – $24.00 $12.40
3 9 Dazzling Gem – – $5.80
4 6 Mo Tom

$1.00 Exacta 1-7 $93.50
$0.50 Trifecta 1-7-9 $483.45
$0.10 Superfecta 1-7-9-6 $548.24
$2.00 Daily Double 8/1 $34.60
$0.50 Pick 3 3 of 3 1/8/1 $91.25
$0.50 Pick 4 4 of 4 7/1/8/1 $2129.60
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On the Fairgrounds undercard, the following were the graded stakes winners
Fairgrounds Oaks G2: Land Over Sea 2-1, top EP and Power
Muniz Memorial G2: Take the Stand 8-1, top EP
New Orleans H G2: Majestic Harbor 5-1 top EP

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