Miss Guts must run farther to repeat

OMAHA, Neb. - A well-matched field of six older fillies and mares will meet in Saturday's $30,000 Queen's Handicap as Horsemen's Park moves to day three of its summer racing festival.

Miss Guts won this race a year ago when it was contested at six furlongs and will have her work cut out to repeat Saturday, when it is run at a mile. Trained by Ray Tracy, Miss Guts is winless in seven starts this year while campaigning in California and Iowa. Her last race came June 28, when she finished third to See How She Runs in the Saylorville Stakes at Prairie Meadows.

Burning Memories returns to Nebraska in search of her fifth win of the year. She won all four of her starts at Fonner Park this spring, three of them stakes, at distances from four to 6 1/2 furlongs, and should prove equally tough at a mile. She comes in off a pair of strong seconds at Canterbury Park and could well be the favorite.

The co-feature on the four-race card, the $27,500 Who Doctor Who for older Nebraska-breds, drew a full field of 10. High Dice will seek his third stakes victory of the year following wins in the Big Red Mile and State Fair Board handicaps at State Fair Park in Lincoln. He carries top weight of 122 pounds with Dan Beck to ride.

The race's namesake, Who Doctor Who, Nebraska's grand old man of racing, will be paraded before the crowd prior to the race. When he retired in 1992, Who Doctor Who was the career earnings leader among Nebraska-breds with nearly $700,000. He campaigned at Ak-Sar-Ben and throughout the region, earning a reputation as one of the finest sprinters in the Midwest in the late 1980's.

A 20-year-old gelding, Who Doctor has been enjoying his retirement from racing while sharing a pasture with the broodmare band at Herb Riecken's farm in Fremont, Neb.