Raiders Fan has right figure

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - While it is tough to root for the NFL's Raiders during another dismal season, Raiders Fan should elicit plenty of support Monday afternoon in the $52,000 feature at the Meadowlands.

She puts a two-race winning streak on the line going a mile in the second-level allowance/$28,000 optional claimer for New Jersey-bred fillies and mares.

Raiders Fan is coming off a career-best effort, a blowout 13-length win against first-level statebreds at the Meadowlands on Oct. 31. She earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 85, easily topping the best lifetime numbers posted by her eight rivals.

Even if Raiders Fan bounces off her top Beyer Figure, she has room to regress and still get the job done. Elvis Trujillo is back aboard for trainer Peter Walder.

These have been a whirlwind couple of weeks for Walder and his girlfriend, trainer Diane Alvarado. They were at Santa Anita for the Breeders' Cup, where Alvarado saddled Eldaafer to a seventh-place finish in the BC Marathon. They came back east, packed up at Delaware Park, and sent their horses - with the exception of Raiders Fan - down to Florida before heading off on a cruise.

Raiders Fan, 5, started moving in the right direction over the summer, picking up a win and three seconds in claimers and starter allowances.

That solid run got owner David Lengel looking long and hard at returning Raiders Fan to New Jersey and its lucrative statebred allowances. He was rewarded when Raiders Fan delivered the lights-out win over a sealed track.

"My owner kept pushing me to run in that race," said Walder who watched the romp from California. "He felt the 60 Beyers she was running would make her competitive. It turns out he was right. There were a couple of favorable scratches and the race kind of fell apart, and she relishes the slop. That night, she was all that."

This will be a relatively short turnaround, but time, and the New Jersey Thoroughbred season, is growing short.

"She's doing good," Walder said. "That's the last horse I'm running up north, so it would be nice to go out a winner for an owner who has been good to me all summer."

Cosmic Dance has been knocking at the door, running second in her last four races, with the latest her best this season. She earned a 71 Beyer.