Fair Grounds Pick of the Week for March 9

Saturday's feature at Fair Grounds is the $75,000 Allen "Black Cat" Lacombe Memorial for three-year-old fillies at about one mile on the turf. #2 MANDY BLUE (6-1) is an interesting candidate from the Brad Cox barn and is sure to be overlooked a bit despite winning an allowance by two lengths over the course in late December. A debut winner on the dirt at Indiana Grand, she was back on that surface last time in the $150,000 Silverbulletday in mid-January, but proved not up to that class when stuck behind a slow pace. Backed down to 5-1, she wound up beating just one of her six rivals. The return to grass figures to agree with her, and it's a surface she's bred to excel over by relative comparison. By Smart Strike, she shares a second dam of French Group 1 winner Macoumba with multiple stakes winner Compelled, who captured the 2018 Mardi Gras over this course. Mandy Blue's third dam was another Group 1 winner in France, Maximova, who in turn produced Hollywood Derby (G1) winner Septieme Ciel. Reunited with jockey Colby Hernandez, who was aboard for the allowance win two back, Mandy Blue could pull a minor surprise in the Lacombe Memorial.   Fair Grounds (Hodges Photography)