Few will recall a horse named Salvaje, a mare who never won a stakes race and whose last start came in November 2023. But bettors who elect to back favored Hey Bertie in the featured seventh race Friday at Fair Grounds should take heed of that name.
Salvaje is the only one of six horses trained by Cherie DeVaux over the last five years to have returned from a layoff of a half-year or longer to win a turf-sprint allowance. Coming back from an 11-month break, Salvaje on Feb. 22, 2023, won exactly the same sort of Fair Grounds race – a sex-restricted, second-level turf sprint allowance with a $50,000 claiming option – in which Hey Bertie runs Friday. Salvaje went off a 7-5 favorite. Hey Bertie, starting for the first time since June 8, figures a similar price.
DeVaux’s barn generally sports favorable long-layoff numbers, but with an interesting split. While many would regard hers as a turf-leaning outfit, DeVaux’s comeback runners on grass away 180 days or longer are just 4 for 37 the last five years. Her strike rate on dirt over the same period is 8 for 29.
Hey Bertie, nonetheless, could prove difficult to beat. A 4-year-old, Hey Bertie has raced just four times, with only two of those outings on turf, clearly her preferred surface. Rained onto the main track in her most recent race at Saratoga, Hey Bertie last March won a first-level Fair Grounds grass sprint allowance, improving off that run to finish second by a neck behind the highly capable Love Cervere in an Aqueduct turf sprint stakes. The Klein Racing homebred has breezed steadily – and often quickly – since Dec. 11 and should be rallying through the homestretch with her standard late kick.
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Epic Style raced far more recently, on Jan. 17, and can be forgiven her ninth-place finish for two reasons: She does not truly want a route of ground, and she was in too tough facing stakes foes in the Marie Krantz Memorial.
Epic Style did notch an eye-catching first-level allowance victory going a two-turn mile Nov. 27 at Fair Grounds, but going into that start, she looked like a sprinter, as was the case coming out of the Krantz. The problem for Epic Style, even with a bounce-back performance, is that 5 1/2 furlongs, the standard Fair Grounds grass-sprint distance, seems too short. Her pair of encouraging one-turn turf races last year came over six furlongs, including one at Kentucky Downs, which plays longer than the official distance.
While a sustained cold snap has settled over New Orleans, the forecast calls for no rain, and Lovely Emma probably can’t win unless the Friday feature gets moved to the main track. Cairo Dream might lack Hey Bertie’s acceleration but consistently comes with a sustained run. She finished a distant second at this Fair Grounds class level and distance Jan. 9 but ran into an extremely sharp Brad Cox-trained Chilean import named Shining Star that day.
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