Regal Red should roll in Sun

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Regal Red will be heavily favored to win her seventh straight stakes race in the $40,000 Sun Handicap at Hastings Sunday. The 6 1/2-furlong feature drew eight older fillies and mares, including a three-horse Budget Stable entry consisting of Champagne Royal, Pretty Meadow, and Regal Heir.

Regal Red has been nothing short of spectacular in her short career. She won her maiden by 10 1/2 lengths in her final start as a 2-year-old in 2003, and then won all five of her races in 2004 with the shortest margin of victory 4 1/4 lengths.

According to her trainer, Robbie Anderson, she wasn't 100 percent fit for her initial start this year, but she still ran well enough to hold off a fast-closing Overact by three-quarters of a length in the Strawberry Morn Stakes on April 23. Regal Red came back to work a bullet five furlongs in 59.60 May 8.

If the track is fast, Regal Red will be very tough to beat. If it comes up wet, and there is rain in the forecast, Anderson isn't quite as confident.

"She's never ran on an off track, so it's hard to say how she'll handle it," he said. "But, she doesn't appear to like training over a wet surface, and if it comes up too wet I'm not 100 percent sure we'll run her."

Frank Fuentes rides Regal Red.

If Victor's Secret runs as well as she did last spring, she could make a race of it. She just missed to Dancewithavixen in this race last spring and then won two straight races before tailing off in midsummer.