Invaders take spoils in the slop

CALGARY, Alberta - Invaders from Vancouver captured both stakes at Stampede Park over the weekend in extremely wet conditions, as Gold Accent proved best by five lengths in Saturday's Duchess of York, and Five Point Star was a 2 1/2-length winner of Sunday's Herald Gold Plate.

The track was sloppy for both races.

Gold Accent, a 4-year-old filly whom trainer Dave Forster bought for $2,000 as a weanling in Kentucky, tracked the pacesetter A Shaky Start throughout most of the 1 1/16-mile Duchess of York and took command turning for home under Rickey Walcott to win drawing off. A Shaky Start held on for second, while Forster's other filly, Socorro County, was a distant third over footing she was unable to handle.

It was the third stakes victory of this meet for Forster, but he did not fare as well Sunday. In the Herald Gold Plate, the Forster-trained Treasured Friend drifted through the first turn. That allowed jockey Pedro Alvarado to slip through along the inside with Five Point Star to assume the lead, which he never relinquished in the 1 1/16-mile race, run in a torrential downpour.

Alvarado flew in from Vancouver to ride 5-year-old Five Point Star for trainer Dino Condilenios, and his knowledge of Treasured Friend's tendency to drift on the turns proved invaluable.

"I knew from his Hastings races that Treasured Friend gets out on the turns," Alvarado said.