Rivalry Between Elle Z, Yes It’s Ginger Resumes In Saturday’s Pan Zareta

A ghost of Christmas past is oft-mentioned each December around Fair Grounds. Not just because she died on Christmas Day, but for the way she died and the tragedy of a career and lineage cut short. Pan Zareta, North America's record-holder with 76 wins, caught a deadly case of pneumonia at age 8. She had transitioned from racing to become a broodmare, but after failing to get in foal, she was returned to training at Fair Grounds. And at Fair Grounds she remains, buried under the infield grass and celebrated every year by the circuit's best turf sprinting fillies and mares in the $75,000 Pan Zareta Stakes.

A quality field of 11 female turf sprinters are programmed for Saturday's feature at Fai Grounds Race Course & Slots. M Bar O LLC's Elle Z, Mike Diliberto's lukewarm morning line favorite at 7-2, and Brilliant Racing & Tagg Team Racing's Yes It's Ginger (5-1) have met a few times before. There were 10 dominant lengths between them when they first met, favoring Elle Z. Then it was 1 and 1/4 gallant lengths between them favoring Yes It's Ginger in their most recent meeting.

With a final time .045 seconds off the Ellis Park course record that day, Yes It's Ginger's connections aimed for Fall graded stakes at Kentucky Downs and Keeneland. Neither came up well for Yes It's True's five-year-old mare.

“I don't think she cared for the surface that day [at Keeneland],” trainer Greg Foley said. “You kinda got to throw that race out. Even the Kentucky Downs race before, a little further than she wants to go. She came out of the races fine and we've freshened her up in between. She looks good, coat's good, and hopefully she'll be good on Saturday–we think she will.”

Looking at the last two races, bettors might assume Yes It's Ginger's form has departed as well. 6 ½ furlongs runs more like 7 furlongs at Kentucky Downs, then she ran in the drenched and downpouring conditions at Keeneland. Good excuses? Yes, but the fields have not corroborated the case made. Besides Change of Control, none of the other 22 horses have won since. Will this be the return to her masterful Ellis Park performance?

“I think that's the same kind of setup we're hoping for Saturday,” Foley said. “She ran a really big race that day–you felt good every step of the way.”

Stories of the Pan Zareta's wins almost always begin, “She broke to the lead…” There's no other spot a turf sprint champion wants to be, right?

In Saturday's 56th running of the Queen of Turf's eponymous stakes race, the catbird seat looks to be just off the pace and to the outside. And if things go according to Yes It's Ginger's connections' designs, that's where she'll be sitting.

“Elle Z's awfully quick, you gotta think she'll be in front,” said trainer Greg Foley. “There's one or two other pretty fast fillies also, so we're towards the outside post, that ought to be a great post for her to sit and pounce on them before the other kickers.”

Marcelino Pedroza, a go-to rider for Team Foley, will pilot Yes It's ginger from post 7.

Yes, it's true: Pan Zareta is buried in the infield at Fair Grounds. Stories have it that on the coldest nights in New Orleans, her hooves can be heard pounding the turf track in winning style. But that's not the only past Fair Grounds winner who hopes to return to form this Saturday.

Elle Z, the winner of last year's Pan Zareta Stakes (13.30-1), has not won on turf since. Her races coming in almost mirror her 2020 run-up: overmatched turf effort, disappointing dirt performance, surprise turf win, and then stakes to follow. Only this year, the Keeneland turf course did not cooperate and she is not entering off a win.

“This is a little bit different this year because I gave her a freshening and then tried to run her a couple of times at Keeneland but it was rained off or too soft, so she missed two races,” trainer Chris Hartman explains.

Instead, she ran into Bell's The One, who many believe would have won the Breeders Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.

“I ended up in that race there, which was not intentional,” Hartman said. “I had no intention of running her in that race, but seeing that she hadn't run in such a long time and she was really sharp and everything we decided to give her a spin. It was a really really tough race and she got smacked around in there. Now she's back to her preferred surface and preferred distance.”

Breaking from the rail, Hartman's regular rider Mitchell Murrill has the mount.

Besides Elle Z, according to running style we can assume the ghost of Pan Zareta favors the filly to Yes It's Ginger's inside: Love and Money (Brian Hernandez Jr, post 6). Trained by Cherie DeVaux and owned by Lael Stable, this daughter of More Than Ready has put three lengths over her competition by the ¼ pole in her last two races. Summering in Saratoga, she tried going two turns on the inner turf, including the $120,000 Riskaverse.

“If you fight with her,” DeVaux said, “she does not take well to being restrained, which is why stretching her out didn't work. She gets keen early and then settles down.”

Moving up from first-level allowance company at Keeneland, she will have to face pressure unlike anything she has faced before.

“She has natural speed so she is going to do what she is going to do,” said DeVaux. “If there are horses in front of her, I don't think it's going to bother her.”

Would be a fitting end to this ghost story to see Ghosting Kim flying across the grass late. Drawn at post 9 with her regular rider James Graham up, last out she ran best to lose the photo—losing ground in her closing charge after having to angle out twice from behind traffic.

Or maybe Saturday's winner will find her form from her pedigree. Pan Zareta's tragic demise left us without her progeny to carry on her winning ways. Not the case for the dam Leigh Court who sends out first foal, Advocating from post 4. Winner of the 2016 turf sprint Mardi Gras Satkes, her filly by Uncle Mo will try 5 ½ furlongs on the grass for the first time. Trained by Michael Stidham with three wins out of six races, Advocating has tired in the last furlong going two turns in her last two races.

Elle Z's early speed is the most dangerous–she has the rail and will send.

“She's fast, man. Some of those others might think they're fast. They might enter but they'll be working hard to do it,” Hartman said. “She's fast. The fastest horse on the inside will be ideal.”

But she won't be alone. Look for the 56th winner to come from off the pace and listen for the ghost of Pan Zareta this winter when the New Orleans nights slow to a frost-bitten standstill.

Post time is 4:42 CT for the Pan Zareta Stakes. The nice race card begins at 1:05 CT.

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Trainers Bauer, Foley Hit with Kentucky Drug Suspensions

Kentucky stewards have disqualified two winners and a third-place horse while assessing trainers Philip Bauer and Greg Foley 30-day suspensions and $500 fines for three separate post-race drug tests that came back positive in recent months.

It was not immediately known if appeals were in the works. Bauer's two suspensions will run concurrently because the stewards cited mitigating circumstances (including “first medication violation in training career”), but he will be responsible for paying both fines. Foley's one suspension got halved via stay to 15 days, also because of mitigating circumstances (“number of violations in relation to overall record”).

According to a pair of Kentucky Horse Racing Commission rulings dated Nov. 18, the Bauer-trained Angkor (Anchor Down), who ran third in a June 13 allowance/optional claiming sprint at Churchill Downs June 13, and Played Hard (Into Mischief), who won a maiden special weight route June 20, both returned positive tests for meloxicam, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory analgesic listed as a Class B (second-most severe tier) substance in Kentucky.

The rulings stated that in addition to his prior clean record, the fact that Bauer was not notified of the first finding before the second one registered a week later was also a factor in allowing his suspensions to be served concurrently over Dec. 5-Jan. 3.

The Foley-trained On Your Mark (Mark Valeski) won a NW1X/N2L allowance turf sprint at Ellis Park Aug. 1 and then tested positive for an acepromazine metabolite. The tranquilizer known as “ace” is a Class B penalty in Kentucky.

Foley's suspension runs Dec. 5-19. The remaining 15 days will be stayed provided he does not register any Class A or B drug violations in any jurisdiction within a year of the Nov. 18 ruling.

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Kentucky Commission Issues Medication Suspensions To Greg Foley, Phil Bauer

Trainers Greg Foley and Phil Bauer have each been issued suspensions by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, according to rulings posted to the Commission's website late last week.

Foley's trainee On Your Mark, winner of the eighth race at Ellis Park on Aug. 1, has been disqualified due to the presence of a metabolite of the sedative Acepromazine, a Class B medication violation. Foley has been fined $500 and issued a 15-day suspension, with 15 additional days stayed pending no additional violations (Class A or B) over the next 365 days.

Foley's suspension will run from Dec. 5 through Dec. 19, inclusive.

Bauer's trainees Angkor (third in Churchill's eighth race on June 18) and Played Hard (winner of Churchill's seventh race on June 20) were both found to have meloxicam in their post-race samples. Meloxicam is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory classified as a Class B medication violation. Both Angkor and Played Hard have been disqualified, with Bauer fined $500 and suspended 30 days for each positive.

Since Bauer could not be notified of the first positive before the second occurred, his suspensions will run concurrently on Dec. 5, 2021 through Jan. 3, 2022.

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Sconsin Scratches From Dream Supreme, Will Return In 2022

Lloyd Madison Farm's multiple graded stakes winner Sconsin, the 9-5 second choice in Saturday's $300,000 Dream Supreme (Listed) at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., has been scratched from the race and will get time off before her 5-year-old campaign.

“This race was going to be her last start of the year before a little winter vacation,” trainer Greg Foley said. “She wasn't acting like herself the last couple mornings so we didn't want to chance anything. She'll get a break and get ready for a 2022 campaign.”

Lothenbach Stables' Bell's the One is expected to be the heavy favorite in the six-furlong affair. The Dream Supreme is Race 10 on Saturday with a post time of 5:36 p.m.

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