MIAMI - It will be the old men against the young whippersnappers when 9-year-old veterans Eternal Look and Tour of the Cat face four rivals, including a pair of 3-year-olds, in Monday's $28,000 main event at Calder.
Eternal Look and Tour of the Cat will receive some much needed class relief in the 6 1/2-furlong optional claiming dash with each entered for $25,000 price tags. The pair met last month in a much tougher allowance race, with Eternal Look finishing a game third behind Champagne Account and Wild Nature. Tour of the Cat finished a well-beaten and tiring fourth.
Eternal Look stepped up to money-conditioned allowance opposition two weeks later and was never a factor, finishing far back in fifth over a sloppy track. Eternal Look, a son of Ponche, will be seeking his 12th career victory on Monday while also looking to add to his career earnings of over $360,000.
Tour of the Cat has tailed off badly since winning a second-level optional claiming race under a $50,000 price tag at Gulfstream Park on April 18. The victory pushed the gelding's career earnings over the $1 million mark. Tour of the Cat should benefit from the lack of speed in Monday's lineup and figures to race on or with the early pace along with Kopper Kilgoar.
How Sweet He Is and Balanced Attack are the two youngsters in the field, but both 3-year-olds will have to step up to compete with the elders.
How Sweet He Is might be the better of the pair, having won two allowance races earlier this year over the inner track in New York. But the son of Sweetsouthernsaint has failed to make much of an impression in two starts since shipping here late this spring.
Shane Jules has the best current form among the six colts and geldings in the field, having finish second as the even-money favorite under similar optional claiming conditions on July 22. Claimed for $25,000 by leading trainer Kirk Ziadie on May 24, Shane Jules is the only member of the field with more than two victories this year.
* Green Vegas, conspicuous by his absence from the entries for most of the meet, worked three furlongs from the gate in 37 seconds on Saturday morning. Among the leaders of the 2-year-old division here last year and stakes-placed in 3 of 4 starts at 3, Green Vegas has not raced since finishing a distant third behind Hal's My Hope in the Unbridled Stakes here on April 28.