Charles Town: Breeders Classics preps

Charles Town will hold four more prep stakes, worth $40,000 apiece, restricted to horses nominated to next month's series of West Virginia Breeders Classics races. There are two divisions of the C. Ruth Funkhouser at seven furlongs, one for fillies and mares, the other for 3-year-old fillies; and two stakes for 2-year-olds, one for males at 6 1/2 furlongs and the other for fillies at 4 1/2 furlongs.

Among the interesting entries are:

* Fancy Buckles, who easily won last year's Funkhouser as a 3-year-old, then finished second in a Breeders Classics race. She has been sharp this season, winning 2 of 3 starts.

* Shesanothergrump (race 4), who was a Breeders Classics winner in 2002, but appears to have lost several steps at age 5, finishing far back in three of her four starts this year.

* Petes Hick Chick (race 8), who was a three-time stakes winner as a 2-year-old last season. In her only start since then, she was last of nine in an allowance race run in July.