Paladin travels for Risen Star; Bella Ballerina tops Rachel Alexandra

Feb 10, 2026 Kellie Reilly/Brisnet.com

Paladin wins the Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct.

Paladin wins the Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct. (Photo by Coglianese Photo / Credit to Janet Napolitano)

The Road to the Kentucky Derby kicks it up a notch at Fair Grounds on Saturday, as the $500,000 Risen Star (G2) ushers in the Championship Series of scoring races with more points up for grabs.

The 1 1/8-mile Risen Star is the first race on this year’s schedule worth 50 points to the winner, 25 points to the runner-up, 15 points to third, 10 points to fourth, and five points to the fifth-place finisher.

Chad Brown sends his well-regarded Remsen (G2) winner, Paladin, while Remsen fourth Courting invades for Todd Pletcher. They will present fresh competition for the leading local contender, Lecomte (G3) hero Golden Tempo.

The Road to the Kentucky Oaks, the companion trail for fillies, likewise ramps up into Championship Series mode at Fair Grounds with the $300,000 Rachel Alexandra (G2). The 1 1/16-mile affair offers Oaks points on the same 50-25-15-10-5 scale to the top five finishers.

Golden Rod (G2) victress Bella Ballerina will try to emulate her half-sister, champion Pretty Mischievous, who won the 2023 Rachel Alexandra and the Kentucky Oaks.

The Risen Star and Rachel Alexandra serve as stepping stones to the final major Fair Grounds preps in their respective divisions, the Louisiana Derby (G2) and Fair Grounds Oaks (G2), on March 21.

You can watch and wager on Saturday’s stakes-laden “Louisiana Derby Preview Day” action at TwinSpires.com.

We’ll give an overview of both races, beginning with the Rachel Alexandra – not only as a matter of ladies first, but because it goes off earlier on the program.

Rachel Alexandra – Race 11, 6 p.m. ET

Godolphin homebred Bella Ballerina brings a perfect 2-for-2 record into her seasonal reappearance. An impressive debut winner at Keeneland for Brendan Walsh, she then stretched out to 1 1/16 miles in the Nov. 29 Golden Rod at Churchill Downs. Hence the daughter of 2007 Kentucky Derby champion Street Sense ranks as the one to beat here.

Just Singing, by Triple Crown sweeper Justify, closed from far back for third in the Golden Rod. If the Kent Sweezey trainee can stay in more realistic striking range, she has a chance to turn the tables on Bella Ballerina.

Luv Your Neighbor has missed narrowly in the past two scoring races at Fair Grounds, the Dec. 20 Untapable S. and Jan. 17 Silverbulletday S. Trainer Michael Stidham has decided to put blinkers on Luv Your Neighbor in hopes of transforming her from a bridesmaid. Also exiting the Silverbulletday is fifth-placer Dancin in Old Town, whose chances were compromised by a slow early pace.

The rest of the field is stepping up in class. Three fillies are advancing from maiden wins – Majestical, who won over this track and trip for Peter Eurton; Cherie DeVaux’s Powered by Family, who dominated a maiden that was rained off the turf and transferred to the dirt; and Agrippina. Classic Glide broke her maiden at Keeneland two starts back, but most recently finished second in a lesser-level starter allowance (restricted to horses who meet certain conditions).

Risen Star (G2) – Race 12, 6:30 p.m. ET

Paladin has a profile reminiscent of champion Sierra Leone, who won the 2024 Risen Star for some of the same connections. A $1.9 million yearling by Hall of Famer Gun Runner, Paladin is likewise trained by Brown for an ownership group including the Coolmore partners. But Paladin has shown greater professionalism at this stage of his career, especially by winning the Remsen that had eluded the wayward Sierra Leone during his two-year-old campaign.

Paladin just got a form boost when the colt he beat in the Remsen, Renegade, came back to win the Feb. 7 Sam F. Davis in grand style at Tampa Bay Downs. Yet that result could also bode well for the other Remsen veteran in the Risen Star, Courting, who ran a better-than-appears fourth with trouble that day. Like Renegade, Courting is trained by Pletcher, a three-time Risen Star winner.

Sold for a sales-topping $5 million as a yearling, Courting is a blueblood son of Hall of Famer Curlin and multiple Grade 1 star Cavorting, by Bernardini. That makes Courting a full brother to Clairiere, herself a four-time Grade 1 winner and earner of more than $3.2 million.

Paladin and Courting are the only two with experience at the 1 1/8-mile distance of the Risen Star. But Golden Tempo’s pedigree and running style are strong indicators that he will handle the added ground.

Golden Tempo is bred along the same pattern as Courting, being by Curlin and out of a well-bred Bernardini mare. After an eye-catching last-to-first win in his six-furlong debut, the DeVaux pupil repeated the feat on the class and distance hike in the Lecomte.

Three others are also coming out of the Lecomte – Carson Street, who held on determinedly for third; fourth Chip Honcho; and fifth-placer Quiet Mischief.

Chip Honcho had captured the first Fair Grounds prep, the Dec. 20 Gun Runner, before taking a step backward in the Lecomte. Note that he takes the blinkers off here for Steve Asmussen, who has won the Risen Star four times, including with Lecomte losers Epicenter (2022) and Magnitude (2025).

Kenny McPeek makes the opposite equipment change with Universe, putting the blinkers on in response to the colt’s non-threatening seventh in Oaklawn Park’s Smarty Jones S. Universe had been a consistent placegetter last season, with a third in the Champagne (G1) and seconds in both the Street Sense (G3) and Kentucky Jockey Club (G2).

Rounding out the eight-horse field is Colt Forty Seven, a distant second to Pletcher’s promising Jackson Hole in a Fair Grounds allowance on Lecomte Day. Colt Forty Seven looks up against it on paper, but trainer Keith Desormeaux has been known to spring mighty upsets, notably in the 2013 Risen Star with the 135-1 Ive Struck a Nerve.

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