'Langara' big favorite in Fantasy

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Championship implications will be on the line when Langara Lass, Miss Me Not, and No Ka Oi meet in Saturday's $75,000-added Fantasy Stakes at Hastings. If all seven of the 2-year-old fillies entered in the 1 1/16-mile feature start, the total purse will be $107,000.

Trained by David Forster, Langara Lass, should be a heavy favorite. A Kentucky-bred filly by Langfuhr, Langara Lass overcame a lot of trouble to easily win the Lassie Stakes on Aug. 28, one of her two stakes wins. Needing a race between the Lassie and the Fantasy, Forster ran Langara Lass against colts and geldings in an allowance sprint on Oct. 1, and she ran well, finishing a fast-closing third to Regal Request. Forster, who trained the dam of Langara Lass, Capilano, doesn't think she will have any trouble stretching out to 1 1/16 miles.

"Capilano won the Washington Oaks, and everything this filly does tells me she'll be even better going longer," Forster said. Chad Hoverson will ride Langara Lass.

No Ka Oi and Miss Me Not are the only other stakes winners in the field.

No Ka Oi, trained by Rob Gilker, was the 3-2 favorite in the Sadie Diamond Futurity, and it looked like she was going to be an easy winner at the top of the stretch. But No Ka Oi tired and just held on to beat Starlite Strike by a nose.

Miss Me Not came from well off the pace to win the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society Sales Stakes and then finished a fast-closing third in the Sadie Diamond Futurity.