Feature offers distinct choice

MIAMI - Handicappers will have to decide between recent form or past reputation when trying to pick the winner of Saturday's $29,500 allowance feature at Calder, scheduled to be run at 7 1/2 furlongs on the turf.

Holiday Blake and Hypocrite are in the best form in the 12-horse field.

Holiday Blake had a three-race winning streak snapped when he caught a sloppy track and finished a troubled fourth here last month. A 4-year-old son of Harlan's Holiday, he has never won a race on turf but was second behind A. P. Magic over the local turf course last summer.

Hypocrite, a multiple stakes winner on dirt, showed signs of cycling back to his best form by rallying to be third despite a slow start going 6 1/2 furlongs on the main track two weeks ago. Like Holiday Blake, he will have to answer the turf question, as he will be making his grass debut on Saturday.

A. P. Magic returns following a nine-month vacation. A turf specialist, he has not started since finishing third, beaten less than a length by Kiss the Kid, in Gulfstream Park's Ft. Lauderdale Stakes. He was also third after setting the pace to midstretch in the Grade 3 Tropical Turf Handicap here late last season.

Fearless Eagle has not started since finishing far back in Monmouth Park's Battlefield Stakes on July 11. Fearless Eagle is winless since capturing the Turf Classic at Tampa Bay Downs on April 4. He was also third here later that month in the Grade 3 Miami Mile Handicap.

Baron Von Tap and Jet Propulsion are also hoping to regain their past stakes-caliber turf form on Saturday.

Baron Von Tap has not started since finishing third as the 4-5 favorite under allowance conditions on Aug. 7. He will be making his first start since being transferred to trainer David Braddy's barn late this summer.

Jet Propulsion will be making his first local appearance since cruising to an easy allowance win in his 2008 finale and first start since finishing eighth after setting a contested pace in Monmouth's Grade 3 Red Bank on Sept. 6.

Mayberry dead at 103

Trainer John P. Mayberry, whose father, J. P. Mayberry Sr., trained 1903 Kentucky Derby winner Judge Himes, died earlier this week in Ocala, Fla., at the age of 103.

Mayberry took out his first trainer's license at Hialeah in 1925, the year the track opened, and settled locally after Calder opened its doors in 1971. Among other family members who followed Mayberry into the business were his late son, Brian, and sister-in-law, Jeanne, both trainers, as well as granddaughters April and Summer Mayberry.