Champ will try to snap Against the Sky's streak

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Against the Sky will be shooting for her seventh straight win when she makes her 2009 debut in a third-level allowance race that carries a $75,000 claiming option at Hastings on Sunday. Standing in her way in the six-furlong feature, which drew seven older fillies or mares, is the 2008 champion 3-year-old filly of Alberta, Bears Artiste.

Against the Sky, trained by Craig MacPherson, is a much better horse going a distance and will need an honest pace to work with if she is going to keep her winning streak alive. The shortest of her six wins came in a $20,000 claiming race at 1 1/16 miles on July 20, and after easily handling colts and geldings going 1 3/8 miles in a couple of $8,000 starter races, she won the $53,000 Delta Colleen and the Grade 3 Ballerina. On the strength of her two stakes wins, she was voted the top older filly or mare in the province.

Frank Fuentes will ride.

Bears Artiste, trained by Dale Greenwood, had a three-race win streak snapped when she shipped to Hastings from Northlands Park to run in a $50,000 optional race last November. She was coming off a victory in the Alberta Oaks.

Greenwood has also entered Broken Hearted, the horse who ended Bears Artiste's win streak. Broken Hearted won the $72,000 Northlands Park Oaks last July.