Crescent City Derby
Fair Grounds, 3-21-20, 1 mile and 1 sixteenth
Three-Year-Olds, Accredited Louisiana Bred, $75,000

SYDSTER
Power Broker–Tensas Salt
Breeder: J. Adcock & Montgomery Equine Center
Owner: Baronne Farms, LLC
Trainer: Edward J. Johnston
Jockey: Florent Geroux

2nd
Jax Man
Goldencents–Blondie Lox
Breeder: Earl Hernandez & Keith Hernandez
Owner: E. Hernandez, K. Hernandez and J. Duvieilh
Trainer: Sam B. David
Jockey: James Graham

3rd
Luckenbacher
Mr. Besilu–Cat’s Production
Breeder: John A Adams
Owner: John A Adams
Trainer: Beverly Burress
Jockey: Corey J. Lanerie

 

Baronne Farms’ Sydster made the most of every inch he was given in his stakes debut as the son of Power Broker had things all his own his way en route to the victory in the $75,000 Crescent City Derby for Louisiana breds.

The Crescent City Derby was the first of eight stakes on Fair Grounds’ signature $1 million Twinspires.com Louisiana Derby (G2) lineup. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the track has been holding races without spectators and allowing only essential personnel on the grounds.

Sent off as 3-2 second choice in the field of eight, Sydster caused some drama before he ever got running when he became fractious in the gate, causing jockey Florent Geroux to temporarily dismount. Once settled and sprung free from post 1, the chestnut gelding was nothing short of professional as he shot to the front and loped along through fractions of :25.05 and :49.36 with 60-1 longshot Luckenbacher tracking him in second.

As Geroux set Sydster down for the stretch run, 4-5 race favorite Langs Day tipped out from his spot along the inside and tried to threaten. Those soft early fractions left Sydster with plenty in reserve, however, to hold off a late surge from Jax Man to the outside and prevail by 1 1/2 lengths in his fifth career start.

Jax Man was 1 ¼-lengths in front of third-place finisher Luckenbacher. City Park was fourth with Langs Day fading to fifth to suffer his first career loss.  The final time for the 1 1/16-miles was 1:45.59 over a track rated fast.

Trained by Edward Johnston, Sydster came into the Crescent City Derby off a second-place run in an allowance race at Fair Grounds on Feb. 17. All five of his starts have come over the New Orleans oval and he improved his record to three wins and one runner-up finish with $104,800 in earnings.

Sydster was bred by J. Adcock and Montgomery Equine Center out of the Salt Lake mare Tensas Salt.