Race 9 – The $60,000 Bonapaw Stakes
3-year-olds and up, About 5 ½ furlongs on turf, 5th running
Jockey Tony Farina (Due Date, winner): “I know my horse perfectly. There was a lot of pace in the race. I take my time with him and that is what I did and he won.”
Trainer Steve Margolis (Due Date, winner): “Last time he had a bit of unlucky trip. He’s a five-and-a-half-furlong horse. Five-and-a-half to six is a good distance. I was glad to get Tony back. Coming into a 6-year-old, he is getting better. He is really thriving five turning six.”
Trainer Ronny Werner (Central City, fifth as favorite): Did blinkers off affect his performance today? “He was a little less aggressive without them, which is kind of what we were looking for. We thought that would be a plus, not a minus. He didn’t seem to have his usual. Once he fights those horses off he’ll keep fighting them off but today he put that one horse away but the next one came to him and he just didn’t dig as much.
“This is a different course down here. It plays different. Some horses like it and some don’t. It’s definitely a closer’s turf and I said that before. For whatever reason horses that come out of it love this course and that’s not his style so he might not ever run good here whether it’s blinkers, no blinkers, no bridle, put a halter on him…”
Could a hard race in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint have taken something out of him? “He’s had enough time to get over all that. He’s been working good, doing good. Everything’s good there. I think if anything the blinkers might have been a little something but more than that I’m wondering about this course for him, to be honest, if he’s ever going to like it.”
Do you still plan to point to the Feb. 19 Colonel Power Stakes here? “You don’t want to keep running across something you don’t like but the only way we’ll know that is to run him again across it. Then we’ll know for sure.”
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James J. Mulvihill
Communications & Pari-Mutuel Marketing Manager
Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots
A Churchill Downs Incorporated Company
1751 Gentilly Boulevard,
504.948.1233 [office]
504.481.8770 [cell]
504.944.7853 [fax]
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