Dave the Knave in for tag

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Classy runners such as Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk, Dave the Knave, and Ever So Free are in abundance on Wednesday's eight-race program at Woodbine.

Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk should be well-backed in the featured sixth race, a $62,500 optional claimer over seven furlongs. His lone stakes success came in the 2004 Woodstock Stakes, and his value hasn't deflated significantly in the interim. He upset reigning champion 2-year-old Leonnatus Anteas in a seven-furlong optional claimer on June 3 and is coming off a fifth-place finish in the Kenora Stakes.

Put Upon and Are You Serious, who ran second and third in a six-furlong optional claimer on Aug. 31, are entered in the sixth. Put Upon used his tactical speed to score twice in eight starts this year, for earnings of $101,998. He could try to wire the field.

Are You Serious, a two-time stakes winner in 2005, is winless in six outings this year, but he had a productive spring campaign, the highlight of which was a narrow loss in the Grade 3 Vigil Stakes.

Dave the Knave will compete with a selling price for the first time in the first race, a $40,000 claimer going 6o1/2 furlongs. The drop certainly raises some red flags, especially when you consider that he has won a stakes in each of his four years on the racetrack.

Dave the Knave launched his current campaign with a victory in the restricted New Providence Stakes, for which he earned a 90 Beyer Speed Figure.

Crease Infraction could be favored in the opener off his third-place finish in the Kenora, from which the runner-up, Dancer's Bajan, exited to capture the Overskate Stakes. Crease Infraction earned a 90 Beyer when taking a six-furlong dash for $40,000 claimers in his next-to-last outing.

Ever So Free heads the fourth race, a $50,000 claiming route. He placed in a pair of stakes here two years ago at 3, the Elgin and Ontario Derby.

Ever So Free defeated $32,000 stock when returning from a layoff Aug. 11, when he was claimed by trainer Paul Attard, who then sent him out to finish second in the Elgin. Attard has scored at an impressive 26 percent rate second time off the claim during his career.

* The pick seven carryover is $35,535.