Mr. Goodkat on business trip

MIAMI The last chance for south Florida racing fans to make a little extra Christmas money comes Monday at Calder, which presents a 10-race Christmas Eve program topped by a pair of entry-level allowance races.

In the seventh race, the well-traveled Mr. Goodkat tops a field of nine 3-year-olds going five furlongs on the turf. Mr. Goodkat will be making the sixth start of his career, each on a different racetrack. The son of Tale of the Cat already has raced at Belmont, Saratoga, Turfway Park, Keeneland, and Churchill Downs, winning his maiden over the Saratoga turf in his 2-year-old finale. Trained by Rusty Arnold for the Dixiana Stable, Mr. Goodkat is winless in three starts this year, but he did finish second, beaten a head, after setting the pace in Turfway Parks Hansel Stakes.

Giveityourbestshot, who has made the first nine starts of his career in New York, will make his south Florida debut for trainer Mark Hennig. Giveityourbestshot won his maiden over the Belmont Park turf course under a $45,000 claiming tag in September and ran second in $50,000 starter allowance opposition on the same course four weeks later.

The local runners are topped by Cloud King, who finished an improved fourth under optional claiming and allowance conditions despite returning from a lengthy vacation earlier this month.

Later on the card, Quality Affair will go off as a short-priced favorite in race 9, a six-furlong dash for fillies and mares. Quality Affair is coming off the best performance of her career, beaten a neck after opening a long lead going 5 1/2 furlongs in her local debut on Dec. 6.

Trained by Allen Jerkens, Quality Affair earned a 94 Beyer Speed Figure that day, and shell take catching Monday despite stretching out an additional sixteenth of a mile.

Should the favorite get late once again, Clerico may prove the best alternative. The lightly raced Clerico also has been well-traveled since beginning her career this summer at Saratoga for trainer Michael Matz. Mondays start marks the fifth different racetrack she has raced on in as many starts. Her most recent appearance culminated in a 3 1/2-length maiden allowance win at Laurel Park on Nov. 24. The red-hot Elvis Trujillo takes the call on Clerico, who breaks from the rail.

Candlelight and the recently claimed Lord Divine also figure as key contenders.