'Red Wine' looks for Pay day

EDMONTON, Alberta - Classa Red Wine, the winner of the only two previous stakes for 2-year-old fillies in Alberta this year, will place her unbeaten streak on the line in the $50,000 Bird of Pay here Saturday afternoon.

Each filly carries 117 pounds in the 6 1/2-furlong Bird of Pay.

Classa Red Wine won the Princess Margaret and the Filly Sale Stakes after winning her maiden for trainer Dale Saunders. Her chief opponent in the field of nine appears to be her uncoupled stablemate Wild Scarlett, who won her maiden in her latest outing.

Wild Scarlett was second against the males in her debut, then ran a closing second to Classa Red Wine in the Princess Margaret after bolting entering the stretch while in the lead. A homebred owned by Saunders's wife, Barb, Wild Scarlett was not eligible for the Sale Stakes.

Quincy Welch retains the mount on Classa Red Wine, while regular rider Leanne Painter has the call on Wild Scarlett.

Bears Little Angel bears watching after finishing third in the Sale Stakes following a third and a fifth for a $20,000 claiming price. Perry Winters picks up the mount.

Alta Aire, Anotherlovelysong, Cool Rebel, and Sounce a Silence all won their maidens in special weight races. In previous stakes appearances, Cool Rebel and Anotherlovelysong were out of the money in the Princess Margaret.

Shy Lil, a maiden, was fourth in the Princess Margaret after being well-beaten in her debut, the Debutante at Assiniboia Downs. In her last start, Shy Lil finished third behind Wild Scarlett.