Interpatation makes bid for third President's Cup

Considering that he has raced 40 times and earned more than $600,000, the 6-year-old gelding Interpatation deserves to be called durable and a money-maker. He's also inconsistent.

Since February 2006, Interpatation is 2 for 2 running in Philadelphia Park's biggest turf event for older males, but 0 for 25 everywhere else.

Saturday, his fondness for Philly Park's grass course will be tested when he goes for a three-peat in the $250,000 PTHA President's Cup.

The 1 1/8-mile grass race will be bucking Big Brown's appearance in the newly created $500,000 Monmouth Stakes at Monmouth Park. Three of the nine runners in the President's Cup - the Bill Mott-trained millionaire Silver Tree, Grade 3 winner Drum Major, and Ballonenostrikes, the third-place finisher in this stakes last year - are cross-entered at Monmouth.

Interpatation, based in New York with trainer Robert Barbara, won the 2006 President's Cup by 2 1/4 lengths at 2-1 odds, earning a 97 Beyer Speed Figure, and defended his title last year, scoring by a length at 8-1 while recording a 100 Beyer. He comes into Saturday's race off a third-place finish in the Grade 1 Sword Dancer at Saratoga and will be looking to snap a nine-race losing streak.

His competition includes two others exiting graded stakes at Saratoga and the Florida shipper Solider's Dancer.

Drum Major, a 6-year-old who has made just four starts the past two years, was beaten only three lengths despite having to steady twice in the Grade 2 Bernard Baruch Handicap on Aug. 23. That was his first race since he finished third in the same stakes a year earlier, and he figures to move forward in his second start off the bench.

Distorted Reality also exits the Baruch, a race in which he finished 1 1/2 lengths behind Drum Major. He may be primed for a peak effort in the third start of his form cycle. Trainer Todd Pletcher shows an outstanding 14-for-40 record (35 percent) with turf runners making their third start following a layoff, according to DRF's Formulator.

Soldier's Dancer might benefit if the turf is something other than firm. He won the Grade 3 Calder Derby over a yielding surface last fall. His most recent grass race, the Turf Classic at Tampa Bay Downs, evolved into a key race, with three next-out winners, including Silver Tree.

If rain moves the race to the main track, Delaware River would become a strong contender. He won by nearly nine lengths last time out in the $125,000 Smarty Jones Classic, a stakes restricted to Pennsylvania-breds.