'Quiz' rarely off mark on this track

PORTLAND, Ore. - Quiz the Maid will head a field of 10 fillies and mares in Saturday's one-mile feature at Portland Meadows, a $7,000 overnight handicap sponsored by the Oregon division of the Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association.

Saturday's nine-race card will have a special 5 p.m. first post to accommodate the Nike National Cross Country Championships, which will be staged at the track earlier in the day.

Quiz the Maid, a 3-year-old trained by Jim Fergason, is no stranger to meeting older rivals. She humbled her elders in the six-furlong Diane Kem Handicap on Oct. 23, then repeated that feat in another HBPA-sponsored overnight handicap at six furlongs Nov. 13. Quiz the Maid won three stakes in her own division here last season, including a score in the one-mile Mt. St. Helens Handicap, and she has six wins and two seconds from eight career starts at Portland Meadows. Quiz the Maid is winless in five starts at other tracks.

Quiz the Maid might get her sternest challenge from Miz Heather, who is coming off back-to-back sprint wins against $8,000 claimers. Miz Heather, a four-time winner at the mile distance, will race coupled in the wagering with Misty Leader. Both are trained by Jim Sayler.

Also a threat is Chancy Chancy, who scored a pair of stakes wins at a mile here last season. Chancy Chancy will break from the outside post under Javier Ortega.