Footprint will face only three

CALGARY, Alberta - Sunday's $50,000 Herald Gold Plate, the top offering for older horses at the Stampede Park meet, drew just four entrants, headed by Footprint, Alberta's 2007 horse of the year.

Footprint established a course record of 1:35 flat in the one-mile Teeworth Plate here May 17 and will be the 125-pound highweight.

His dominant performance undoubtedly scared off a few rivals, but Test Boy and Teagues Fight, second and third in the Teeworth, are back, and longshot Tejano Trouble joins the fray.

Footprint is a deserving 4-5 morning-line favorite in the 1 1/16-mile Herald Gold Plate, and with little speed in the short lineup, rider Real Simard appears to own the lead.

Footprint dueled with the speedy Ronaldino early in his record-setting performance and then repulsed Teagues Fight, who took up the chase at the three-eighths pole.

Rider Stephan Heiler, aboard Teagues Fight, moved early once it was apparent the sprinter Ronaldino was faltering midway down the backstretch, and the move may have cost him second money.

With no other speed signed on here, Teagues Fight is faced with a similar dilemma.

Those looking to upset the favorite might point to the closing move put on by Test Boy, who was one of a handful of horses to make up ground on May 17 over a lightning-fast surface that had a decided speed bias. Sunday's extra sixteenth of a mile can only help him.