If Bub goes, others are in trouble

AUBURN, Wash. - With archrival Knightsbridge Road sidelined by a fever, Bub figures as a solid favorite over a full field of challengers in Sunday's $100,000 Gottstein Futurity at Emerald Downs.

Bub, a 2-year-old son of Slewdledo who races for owner Art McFadden, will be attempting to put the icing on a stellar campaign that has seen him win four of five starts coming into the 1 1/16-mile Futurity. His only loss came by a head in the six-furlong Emerald Express to Knightsbridge Road, who finished second to Bub four times.

Knightsbridge Road's defection helped unleash a flood of entries for Sunday's Futurity, as did news that Bub's status for the race is questionable. Trainer Bud Klokstad said that Bub missed a good deal of training after exiting his last win in the Aug. 24 WTBA Lads Stakes with a minor problem, and that he will not make a final decision on running the gelding until Sunday.

Assuming Bub goes, it should not be assumed that he will be vulnerable. Similar uncertainty surrounded the Klokstad-trained Jumron Won before last season's Emerald Downs Derby, and those with longer memories will recall that the Klokstad-trained Staff Rider was touch-and-go to make the 1992 Gottstein Futurity at Longacres. Both horses won impressively.

Bub's chief challengers would appear to be Condotierri, who ran third to Bub and Knightsbridge Road in the one-mile Lads, and the fillies Valour Road and Bisbee's Prospect, the second- and third-place finishers in the one-mile Barbara Shinpoch Stakes on Aug. 24.

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