Salty Attraction preps in Runza

Salty Attraction makes her seasonal debut when she faces eight others in the $10,000 Runza Stakes for fillies and mares at Fonner Park.

The race serves as a prep for the closing-day feature on May 2, the $25,000 Al Swihart Memorial. Salty Attraction is the two-time defending Swihart champion. She opened her campaign last year with a second-place finish in this race. Salty Attraction, trained by Mike Kirby, flashes a 4-2-1 mark from 7 starts over this track.

Rare Crystal, trained by Jim Cranwell, was a half-length winner of a March 28 top-level allowance, with Dazzling Seville second and Ride the Wave another neck back in third and closing. All three are back on Saturday, and one of them will probably end up the favorite.

Dazzling Seville, trained by Robert Hoffman, won the Orphan Kist Stakes here March 7 and should be a pace factor in this spot along with Rare Crystal. Rare Crystal was runner-up in the Bold Accent at a half-mile in February before getting her first win of the season in the allowance race. Ride the Wave was a second-level allowance winner here March 13 and then made a strong late run in the March 28 allowance.

Slewpy Girl, a $15,000 claim at Delta Downs in December, has been running competitively in allowance company. Her last start came March 18 going a mile and she was second against second-level allowance company. She shows an ability to close from well back or lay just off the pace and could prove dangerous here for trainer Ronnie Riggs.