It would be fair to say the jockey-trainer team of Jose Ortiz and Cherie DeVaux has done well in turf races this Fair Grounds meet.
The two have teamed up with 13 Fair Grounds grass starters, and eight have won. A bettor who played all of them to win would have nearly doubled their money.
The DeVaux-Ortiz juggernaut has action in the featured eighth race Thursday, a second-level turf sprint allowance restricted to fillies and mares and open to $50,000 claimers. The weather forecast suggests the race stays on grass, and Fair Grounds during a three-day racing week (no card Super Bowl Sunday) has the temporary rail set at the outermost position, 25 feet. Nine horses were entered for turf, four more main track only.
With different connections, the 5-year-old mare Aunt Becca would look like a fringe contender. Since November 2023, she has made but two starts, in March and in September last year; has turned in more poor performances than promising ones; and never has raced on turf. But since DeVaux trains her and Ortiz rides, expect Aunt Becca to go off lower than her 6-1 morning-line odds.
While Aunt Becca can’t be ruled out, others hold more appeal, particularly Off Ramp, whose trainer, Joe Sharp, enters the week with a meet-leading 20 winners. Off Ramp drops from two stakes races, the most recent rained from turf onto dirt, and gets into the feature under the $50,000 claiming option, $10,000 more than Sharp and owner Jeanine Cumiskey claimed her for last June.
Photographer Hodges retiring
Longtime Fair Grounds photographer Lou Hodges Jr. is retiring, though his company, Hodges Photography, remains track photographer at Fair Grounds, Evangeline Downs, and Louisiana Downs.
Hodges in 1976 began working with his father, Lou Hodges Sr., whose first year taking photos at Fair Grounds was 1948. Hodges’ daughter, Amanda Hodges Weir, now heads the company.
Hodges, a New Orleans native, also had stints as track photographer at Rockingham Park in New Hampshire and Washington Park and Arlington Park in the Chicago area.
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