Bayou Breeders' Cup Handicap

- The G3 Bayou Breeders Cup Handicap goes at 9 furlongs on the turf at the Fair Grounds and it looks like a good wagering affair. Ide Be a Lady (Ida) tries stakes company for the first time after a win against 40K NW2 optional claimers. She was able to loaf to an easy lead in :49.3, and may not have to go all that much faster to lead stakes horses here, there are some real plodders among these. It’s a big class rise and the turf doesn’t seem to have been kind to speed the last few days, but maybe for exotics at a price. Bijou (Cozzene) closed into really fast closing fractions after they went 51.3 to the half to edge 80K opt claimers. But she did get the inside trip on the turn, and another turf race at FG that day was run in a similar pace pattern. My Misty Princess, by Acceptable, a son of Capote, loves Lone Star, and won two stakes there in October; but she has just a third in three starts at FG and disappointed behind Bijou in his last. Shadow Cast (Smart Strike) beat a couple of these in a stakes here in December. His last was a 97 Beyer win in a dirt stakes and she may actually prefer that surface, but she’s in sharp form now. Sister Swank (Skip Away) switched to the turf last spring and scored 2 wins including a Grade 3, 2 thirds, and a Grade 2 4th in which she missed the win by only a half length. She has been off two months and I see with Formulator that trainer Steve Asmussen’s record for the last six months around 60 days off is not great, do you think I’m getting carried away with this stuff??!!? May Gator, by Green Alligator, a son of Gate Dancer! - is a 6 year old mare with 27 starts on the turf. She only has 5 wins with 10 seconds; but three of those wins came since June of last year, plus she missed by only a neck in a Grade 3, edging the tough Angela’s Love. So perhaps she’s learned what it takes to win. She’s been out since an off the turfer 12/23 and her and her trainer’s records off similar layoffs are a little spotty, but she’s worked steadily capped by a bullet 6f work for this, and I think she’s gonna run big.