A visit Tom Amoss paid to the Fair Grounds backstretch as a young adolescent led, in the end, to his career as a horse trainer. The visit happened because Amoss’s friend’s father, Albert Stall Sr., served as commissioner of the Louisiana Racing Commission and owned horses. Amoss and the friend, trainer Al Stall Jr., have competed against each other for decades. Thursday, the New Orleans natives each start a plausible winner of the $275,000 Thanksgiving Classic.
The Thanksgiving Classic used to be called the Thanksgiving Handicap, traditional the opening day feature.
“Everybody in New Orleans knows that a Thanksgiving tradition is to go to Fair Grounds,” Amoss told Daily Racing Form in a Q & A back in 2011. “It’s the opening of the race season, but it’s also the start of the winter holidays in New Orleans.”
The Thanksgiving race, contested at six furlongs, rarely has drawn a field as deep as this year’s, even with morning-line favorite Giant Mischief expected to be scratched in favor of the Fall Highweight at Aqueduct.
Ten others remain, including Bo Cruz for Stall and Minnesota Ready for Amoss.
Minnesota Ready hasn’t started since finishing a tame third Sept. 27 in a Churchill Downs allowance. Bo Cruz races for the first time since winning the Grade 3 Commonwealth Stakes at Keeneland in April. Bo Cruz debuted at Fair Grounds in February 2023, finishing second in a sprint, his only previous try at a distance as short as six furlongs. Stall ran Bo Cruz in five two-turn races before cutting back to seven eighths in the Commonwealth.
“Bo’s doing extremely well,” said Stall. “He shortened up pretty well. It definitely seems like the shorter the better. I don’t know about three-quarters, but it’s at least a starting point.”
A strong pace could help Bo Cruz, Minnesota Ready even more so. In that September allowance, Minnesota Ready, second behind Bo Cruz in the paceless Commonwealth, tracked the pace in a short field.
“He got the wrong trip,” Amoss said. “For Minnesota Ready to win a race like this, he’s going to have to get a setup, sit back and make a late run.”
That’s what Minnesota Ready did hitting a career peak last season at Fair Grounds in the off-turf Colonel Power.
“This horse is a different horse with Lasix, and he’s going to have Lasix,” Amoss said.
Montalcino, Champlin, and The Donegal Clan will supply the early pace. Champlin, winner of 4 of 7 starts, though winless in two stakes, won his debut and a first-level allowance last Fair Grounds meet. Montalcino, a 3-year-old, pulled the same maiden and first-level allowance double, and while those two races comprise his entire career, Montalcino possesses high-level talent. His allowance win last month at Keeneland came by six lengths with a 97 Beyer Speed Figure.
Trainer Cherie DeVaux said connections hope to get Montalcino to the Dec. 26 Malibu at Santa Anita, a Grade 1 for 3-year-olds over seven furlongs, the distance of the colt’s two starts.
“I like the six furlongs better than going a mile. He’s just got natural speed, and I think he can handle the cutback just fine,” DeVaux said.
Montalcino has worked only twice since his Oct. 4 win. DeVaux said that’s standard for the colt. “I haven’t even squeezed on him a bunch,” she said.
Miles Ahead, unraced since April, won the 2023 Thanksgiving Classic by 4 1/2 lengths. His trainer, Paul McGee, has raced in New Orleans since 2005. Amoss, with his friend Stall, has been going to Fair Grounds since the 1970s. They’ll be there Thursday.
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