Nance and Root each send a pair

PORTLAND, Ore. - Trainers Jonathan Nance and Ben Root take double shots at Saturday's $15,000 OTBA Stallion Stakes at Portland Meadows, a six-furlong race for 3-year-olds that has drawn a field of six.

Nance will field Mountain Band and Silver River, who will race as an entry, while Root will send out Riley Beaver and Lovers Cascadian, who will race uncoupled owing to separate ownership.

Both of the Nance trainees look live, as Silver River was an impressive maiden winner on Jan. 2 in his second start and Mountain Band is dropping out of stakes company. Mountain Band, a son of Cascadian, finished second in the OTBA Sales Stakes before running fourth in both the Bill Wineberg and the Os West Futurity.

The Root-trained Riley Beaver is the lone stakes winner in the field, having scored a late-running victory in the OTBA Sales Stakes here in November. That win made him eligible for a $30,000 bonus in the Os West Futurity, but he could do no better than fifth, 2 1/4 lengths behind Mountain Band.

Lovers Cascadian, who was badly beaten in both the Bill Wineberg and the Os West Futurity, was not originally scheduled to run on Saturday, but he posted a bullet half-mile workout in 48.80 seconds last Sunday to earn a berth in the gate.

Also dangerous is Randy Rooter, who defeated maiden special weight company in his 5 1/2-furlong debut here on Jan. 7.