Flirt for Fame has been unstoppable

Flirt for Fame's domination of the Massachusetts-bred stakes ranks figures to continue Saturday at Suffolk Downs when she lines up against males in the $40,000 John Kirby two weeks after easily topping the 3-year-old fillies in her division.

Flirt for Fame and the 5-year-old mare Ask Queenie have combined to win eight of the nine stakes held at Suffolk this year, and three male maidens are the only competitors in the Kirby who have yet to finish behind one or both of them.

So far this year, Flirt for Fame and Ask Queenie have gobbled up $210,000 of the $360,000 paid out in stakes purses. It has all been profit for their owners because both were homebreds.

Flirt for Fame will be ridden by Rafael Medina. A daughter of Freud, Flirt for Fame rolled to a 3 1/4-length score in the Louise Kimball Stakes last time for owner John D. Murphy and trainer Mike Gorham.

Ask Queenie can't compete in races for 3-year-olds, but she has a proxy in her full brother The Key to Time for owner Laurine Barrera and trainer Lori Lockhart. He is making just his fourth start and hasn't shown the same talent as his accomplished older sibling yet. Ask Queenie won this race in 2004.

Lockhart will also saddle Southoftheborder and Sassy Splash for her father, Lloyd. The fillies were second and third in the Kimball and have yet to solve Flirt for Fame in four meetings.

Riding the Edge was sixth in the Rise Jim Stakes in June but has since finished in the money in three of his last four starts.

Stakes-caliber turf allowance

This was supposed to be the day when Suffolk gathered the best in the nation for the Massachusetts Handicap, but with the race canceled again this year, one of the better gatherings of the region's best will occur in a $25,000 allowance race at a mile and 70 yards on turf.

Bodgiteer, who was a close third in the Claiming Crown Emerald Stakes in July, won a race similar to Saturday's in his Suffolk turf course debut Sept. 12. He takes on Itsawonderfulife, most recently second by a nose in the Formal Gold Stakes at Monmouth Park.

Also in the field is Gran Cesare, who won the Old Ironsides Stakes on the Mass Cap undercard in 2004.

Announcers get a bit creative

English race announcer Mark Johnson and Suffolk's senior racecaller Larry Collmus brought a little excitement to what would have been a run-of-the-mill Wednesday nightcap when they teamed to call the race a la the Grand National.

Johnson is no stranger to picking up the call in the middle of the race, having served as a regular commentator for Britain's top races. He renamed the stream that runs under the backstretch "Bechers Brook," and called the far bend the "Canal Turn" just like two famous landmarks on Aintree course.Baker, Casse take two shotsP