Fargo Forbes returns home in rescheduled Saskatoon

SASKATOON, Saskatchewan - Both scheduled cards last weekend at Marquis Downs were scrapped due to heavy recent rainfall that caused a 25-foot-long hole in the track near the finish line.

The track began work on the surface on Monday. The two lost days are likely to be made up as Thursday night cards on the last two weekends of the meet.

Live racing is scheduled to resume Friday night with the feature being the $6,000 Saskatoon Handicap, originally scheduled for Canada Day, with seven 3-year-olds competing over six furlongs.

Fargo Forbes, the champion 2-year-old in the province in 2004, returns to Marquis Downs for the Saskatoon and should be well backed in the first local stakes of the season for 3-year-olds along the trail to the $15,000 Saskatchewan Derby. The derby goes on Sept. 10, the final card of the meet.

Fargo Forbes won the Saskatchewan Futurity and the Western Heritage here last year, and his connections decided to try the Alberta circuit this spring. But a second-place finish for a $12,000 tag was all Fargo Forbes could muster in five starts there, and he returns to friendlier confines for RJ Stable.

Lambrose was second in both races won by Fargo Forbes last year, and he then went on to win his maiden last fall at Northlands Park for a $20,000 price. This year has been a different story, however, as Lambrose has a pair of seventh-place efforts to show from his two outings.

Wind Dancer ran fourth in both the Heritage and the Prairie Lily Sales Stake last year, finishing ahead of both Fargo Forbes and Lambrose in the latter event.

Wind Dancer's lone start in 2005 was a winning one, as he graduated over six furlongs with Serge Rocheleau aboard. Rocheleau, who rode Fargo Forbes here last year, is sticking with Wind Dancer on Friday.

* Longtime trainer Madeline Walton died Monday after being kicked by one of her horses here during training hours. Walton, 76, began her training career at Stampede Park in 1955 and had held her trainer's license in Saskatchewan since 1971.