Concert Music tests record in stakes

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Concert Music will put her undefeated record on the line in the $50,000 Brighouse Belles at Hastings on Sunday. The 6 1/2-furlong feature drew seven older fillies and mares and goes as the seventh race.

Standing squarely in the way of Concert Music is Dancing Allstar, who has never lost a sprint at Hastings.

It is hard to tell just how good Concert Music is. In just her third start, Concert Music proved she can sprint with the best fillies and mares at Hastings when she scored an impressive win over stakes winners Blue Sky Holiday and Wind Storm in a classified allowance race on April 25. It was her first start since she won a $50,000 optional claiming sprint on May 16, 2009. According to trainer John Snow, she also had missed a work going into her last race.

"I wouldn't be surprised if she ran an even better race this time," Snow said.

Concert Music has been right on the lead in all three of her wins, but Snow is confident she doesn't need to be in front in order to win.

"She's just fast and comes out of the gate running," he said. "We took the blinkers off for her last race, and she was very relaxed out there."

Fernando Perez rides Concert Music.

Trained by Terry Jordan, Dancing Allstar could be tough to handle if she reverts back to the form she held as a juvenile and 3-year-old when she won eight of her first 10 races. She hasn't won a race in more than a year, however, and in her only start this year she set the pace before fading in the stretch to finish last in the Grade 3 Whimsical at Woodbine on April 18.

She drew the outside post, and there isn't much doubt that jockey Pedro Alvarado will put her right on the lead.

Kaweah Princess ships up from Emerald Downs, where she lost by a neck to No Flies on Doodle in a classified allowance race on April 9. No Flies on Doodle came right back to win the $50,000 Hastings at Emerald last Sunday. Kaweah Princess shouldn't have any trouble negotiating the two turns. She won the 1 1/16-mile Palomeras going around three turns at Fairplex last September.

Wind Storm does her best running over a fast track, so she might not have cared for a track that was drying out when she finished third as the favorite in her initial start this year.