Bonepaw Stakes at Fair Grounds

A 5 1/2 furlong turf sprint isn’t the most common race at US thoroughbred tracks, but that’s exactly what’s available for simulcast betting today from New Orleans’ Fair Grounds when ten are expected to set off in the $75,000 Bonepaw Stakes. The race is the third of six stakes events on the afternoon card from Fair Grounds. With two scratching out the field has been reduced, and the lukewarm morning line favorite is the five-year-old Kentucky-bred Great Mills, who will also carry co-high weight of 120 pounds, and who is listed at 7-2.

Great Mills looking for last year's form

After campaigning at the highest level last year, when he finished fourth, beaten three lengths in the Grade I Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, Great Mills has had a mixed campaign in 2013. Although he has two wins in four starts for the year, both of those came at the allowance level. He finished up the track in tenth in his only graded-stakes try since the BC, although that was in soft going he may not have liked. Otherwise, he was second in a small field three back in the Troy Stakes at Saratoga.

Asmussen trainer of top two contenders

Steve Asmussen is the trainer of Great Mills, and he’s a strong possibility to take the exacta, as his other runner, Mico Margarita, also has a chance and is listed at 6-1. A three-year-old who has been in the money in five of seven 2013 starts, he’s coming off a third in the Thanksgiving Day Handicap at this course, after running second in the Grade II Amsterdam Stakes at Saratoga, and prior to that winning the Grade III Carry Back Stakes at Calder. The only blemish on his record is a sixth when trying the dirt at Oaklawn, as his other out-of-the-money result was a DNF after losing the rider.