Fair Grounds Racecourse (photo via www.myneworleans.com).
A field of 11 solid grass performers will race the about 1 1/8-mile distance in the $300,000 Muniz Memorial Handicap (GIIT) which has been carded as the 8th race of the afternoon.
Coming off three straight wins, including two against Grade III company, Chocolate Ride has been labeled the early 5-2 favorite and will break from post position four under Florent Geroux. Chocolate Ride has won six of seven starts, with a second, over the local Fair Grounds turf course and has won seven of his 11 grass starts overall. He’s also four-for-six, with a third, at nine grassy furlongs. Expect him to set sail right from the break and try to hold off any challenges at the wire.
Roman Approval has finished behind Chocolate Ride in his last two and is hoping to turn the tables. The Mike Maker-trained son of Roman Ruler has finished in the money in 11 of his 14 career turf starts but seems to like to finish second, having 14 runner-up finishes in 29 career starts overall.
Post time for the 8th race Muniz Memorial has been set at 4:52 p.m.
California native and lifelong horsewoman Margaret Ransom is a graduate of the University of Arizona’s Race Track Industry Program. She got her start in racing working in the publicity departments at Calder Race Course and Hialeah Park, as well as in the racing office at Gulfstream Park in South Florida. She then spent six years in Lexington, KY, at BRISnet.com, where she helped create and develop the company’s popular newsletters: Handicapper’s Edge and Bloodstock Journal. After returning to California, she served six years as the Southern California news correspondent for BloodHorse, assisted in the publicity department at Santa Anita Park and was a contributor to many other racing publications, including HorsePlayer Magazine and Trainer Magazine. She then spent seven years at HRTV and HRTV.com in various roles as researcher, programming assistant, producer and social media and marketing manager.
She has also walked hots and groomed runners, worked the elite sales in Kentucky for top-class consignors and volunteers for several racehorse retirement organizations, including CARMA.
In 2016, Margaret was the recipient of the prestigious Stanley Bergstein Writing Award, sponsored by Team Valor, and was an Eclipse Award honorable mention for her story, “The Shocking Untold Story of Maria Borell,” which appeared on USRacing.com. The article and subsequent stories helped save 43 abandoned and neglected Thoroughbreds in Kentucky and also helped create a new animal welfare law known as the “Borell Law.”
Margaret’s very first Breeders’ Cup was at Hollywood Park in 1984 and she has attended more than half of the Breeders’ Cups since. She counts Holy Bull and Arrogate as her favorite horses of all time. She lives in Pasadena with her longtime beau, Tony, two Australian Shepherds and one Golden Retriever.
