Wild About Marie with jockey Richard Eramia (yellow cap)
wins the 25th running of the Bienville Stakes over the Fair Grounds turf
course. Hodges Photography / Lou Hodges, Jr.
Wild About Marie wins FG’s Bienville Stakes
Rosie Napravnik Notches 100th Winner This Winter at Fair Grounds
By Graham Ross, Staff Writer
NEW ORLEANS - March 19, 2011 – Ike and Dawn Thrash’s Wild About Marie,
allowed to settle just behind the early leaders, launched a strong bid
in the final furlong to capture Saturday’s 25th anniversary edition of
Fair Grounds’ $60,000 Bienville Stakes for older fillies and mares at
about 5 1/2-furlongs over the Stall-Wilson turf course by three-quarters
of a length.
Ridden by Richard Eramia and trained by Jeff Thornbury, Wild About Marie
accomplished the distance over the grass rated firm in 1:05.15,
increased her career earnings to $160,150 and won her fifth race from 11
lifetime starts and returned mutuels of $11.60 $6 and $3.40
“She broke sharp but I put her behind the speed,” said Eramia right
after the race. “Then I just waited for my spot. The horse ran a good
race. She finished strong.”
Melnyk Racing Stables’ Mullins Beach rallied late to gain the place,
paying $6.80 and $3.80, but could not match the winner.
Team Valor International and Highfield Stock Farm’s Chantilly Nayla
found her best stride late to finish third, a length and a half behind
Mullins Beach and returned $2.80 to show.
Andrena Van Doren’s Starlite Starbrite made the pace with early
fractions of 22.54 and 47.37 but weakened to fourth in the late stages.
ROSIE NAPRAVNIK RIDES 100TH WINNER THIS WINTER AT FAIR GROUNDS –
Leading rider Rosie Napravnik became the first jockey in four years to
win 100 or more races during a Fair Grounds meeting when she hit the
century mark aboard Charles Fletcher’s Baltimore Bob for trainer Cody
Autry in Saturday’s fifth race. Earlier in the afternoon Napravnik won
the third race astride Curragh Mon, owned by Barrett Racing Stable and
trained by Mike Stidham.
The last rider to win hit the local winner’s circle more than 100 times
was Joe Talamo, who rode 118 winners during Fair Grounds’ 2006-2007
meeting. Seven-time Fair Grounds jockey champion Robby Albarado,
sidelined by a broken heel suffered earlier in the meeting but slated to
return to action shortly, rode more than 100 winners during six of his
seven local jockey championships.
Racing resumes Sunday at Fair Grounds with an 11-race program beginning
at 12:40 p.m.
About Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots
Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, the nation’s third-oldest racetrack,
has been in operation since 1872. Located in New Orleans, Fair Grounds
is owned by Churchill Downs Incorporated (NASDAQ: CHDN); it also
operates a slot-machine gaming facility and 10 off-track betting parlors
throughout southeast Louisiana. The 139th Thoroughbred Racing Season
runs through March 27, 2011, highlighted by the 98th Grade II Louisiana
Derby on March 26. Information about Fair Grounds can be found online at
www.FairGroundsRaceCourse.com
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