On paper, Miss Missile towers over field

Miss Missile will make her ninth consecutive stakes appearance in Sunday's six-furlong Chantilly Stakes for 3-year old fillies at Assiniboia Downs, and she should be an overwhelming choice to wire the field in the $50,000 event.

A winner of 6 of 16 starts and $237,087, Miss Missile has more than three times the combined earnings of her three foes in the Chantilly.

Although she has only won once from five starts in 2008, that being a wire-to-wire victory going seven furlongs in the Genesis at Delta Downs, Miss Missile was dominant at age 2 last year, including a smashing 10 3/4-length victory in the $100,000 My Trusty Cat at Delta Downs in November.

Miss Missile, trained by Charles Smith and based at Lone Star, is no stranger to the Assiniboia racing surface, as she shipped north of the border in August to take the $45,000 Debutante. Rohan Singh rode the daughter of Golden Missile to victory that day and gets the call once again.

Based on her top Beyer Speed Figure of 90, and the fact that none of her foes has a number better than a 50, Miss Missile will be very tough to catch.

Bella Maria is the only other stakes winner in the field, having won Assiniboia's $30,000 CTHS Sales in September.

Stakes-placed in both of her other starts as a juvenile, Bella Maria's only start in 2008 was a tiring third-place finish to Lunacat in a May 18 allowance sprint.

Lunacat, who stalked the pace that day and was able to run past the speed down the lane, will hope to do much the same as she tracks Miss Missile here.

However, Lunacat did run against Miss Missile in the Debutante last year and was 11 lengths back in fifth, so she will really need to have stepped forward from ages 2 to 3 to compete.

Completing the field is the maiden Queen Tina, a hard-closing third last time out in a maiden dash on May 17.