Ruby's Big Band tops Pepsi Stakes

Multiple stakes winners Ruby's Big Band and Lou Lou Larue meet up in the $15,000 Pepsi Stakes for 3-year-old fillies over six furlongs at Fonner Park.

Ruby's Big Band, trained by Charles Smith, was a three-time stakes winner at Assiniboia Downs in Canada last year and is the likely favorite in this six-furlong test. She has bankrolled $97,323 from a record of 4-1-1 in 11 starts. Her most recent efforts have come at Delta Downs, where her last start was a good fourth in the $60,000 Genesis Stakes on Jan. 15.

Smith has made a habit of bringing competitive horses here, and Ruby's Big Band is no exception. Last year, he brought in the multiple stakes winner Miss Missile to win both the Bold Accent and Al Swihart Memorial Stakes. Ruby's Big Band will have the services of leading rider Jordan Olesiak.

Lou Lou Larue won both of her starts last year, taking the State Fair Futurity in her career debut and then returning to capture the Capital City Futurity. She was given the remainder of the year off and makes her seasonal bow in this spot, now under the care of trainer Chuck Turco. Both of Lou Lou Larue's victories came against males, and this Nebraska-bred daughter of Blumin Affair has marked herself as one to watch this year. Damon Leeds has the mount.

They Call Me Edna, winner of an entry-level allowance here March 7 also was a 2-year-old stakes winner, winning the $27,000 KTA Futurity at the Anthony Fair last summer in her only career start. Trainer Betty Thomas brought her back March 7, going a half-mile and earning a head victory in an allowance race.