Runza Stakes tops tasty lineup for Fonner pick four

By south-central Nebraska standards, at least, Tuesday’s program at Fonner Park is a blockbuster. Bettors hungry for early-week play also should find the nine-race program, which has a very appealing back end, surprisingly attractive.

Featured is race 8, the $10,000 Runza Stakes for older fillies and mares at a two-turn, six-furlong trip, and the Runza is surrounded by competitive allowance races. Race 9 has no conditions and drew a deep field of 10, while race 7, a nonwinners-of-four-allowance with a $10,000 claiming option, also got 10 entrants. Race 6, a nonwinners-of-three allowance with a $7,500 claiming option, drew a field of nine. That’s a good-looking late pick four, south-central Nebraska or otherwise.

Heading the Runza is Love at Night, a Nebraska-bred terror at Fonner Park, where her record stands at a sparking 12-10-1-0. Among those 10 victories are two already this meet – both in stakes competition – as well as a 4 1/2-length win in the 2019 Runza. Love at Night, a 7-year-old Mr. Nightlinger mare, is trained by Terrell Hemmer for Rita Hemmer and her breeder, Thomas E. Thomas. Not only has she been virtually unbeatable at Fonner, no one ever seems to be able to keep up with her. Love at Night has been the first-call leader in 11 of her last 12 starts, and even when she was headed early two back in her 2020 debut, a race she probably needed following a layoff of nearly nine months, she won a speed duel and the Bold Accent Stakes by three-quarters of a length.

Make no mistake, there is other speed signed on in the Runza, with as many as four other horses likely to try for the front end. That just means fewer stalkers and closers to potentially run down Love at Night if, as usual, she’s able to put away her pace rivals. Chub’s Charmer is a proven late-runner but hasn’t been able to come close to reaching Love at Night, even with a favorable setup, while Kool Kate, a stakes-winning turf-route horse at her best, has never raced at Fonner and would be easy to oppose at anything like her 5-2 morning-line odds.

Holding Fast could cap off the pick four at a fair price in race 9. Trained by Kelli Martinez, who’s in a battle for leading trainer this meet, Holding Fast didn’t have the easiest of trips finishing third last out in the Tondi Stakes after breaking from the rail. He thrives as a pace-stalking sprinter at Fonner, where his record is 7-4-2-1 following the Tondi defeat, and is in line for a favorable trip Tuesday.

Mallory’s Bandit, listed at 10-1 on the race 7 morning line, should be included in pick four tickets. His Fonner debut came Feb. 22, when trainer Marisa Black, an 11-time winner at this meet, ran him over a half-mile in stakes competition in what appears to be a prep for this six-furlong start. Mallory’s Bandit worked a near-bullet half-mile on April 1, is well drawn on the rail, and should have pace at which to run.