She's the queen of the quarter-milers

FORT ERIE, Ont. - At Fort Erie, trainer Myckie Neubauer is beginning to be known as the queen of the quarter-milers. Three times she has entered runners in the infrequently carded but popular two-furlong races - and three times she has had the winner.

The dashes, one for the females and one for the males appear on the cards on Saturday and Sunday, after an absence of several weeks. Neubauer won the two most recent two-furlong races - one with the filly Appealing Allie Sept. 17 and the other with the colt Best of the Duck the next day.

It was Best of the Duck's second consecutive win at the distance. And in both races another two-furlong specialist, Pecos Star, finished behind him. Pecos Star earned cult status at Fort Erie last year by rattling off six consecutive wins, all at the abbreviated distance. Neubauer has nominated Best of the Duck, a $14,000 claim July 24, to a 4 1/2 furlongs stakes at Charlestown to be run Oct. 12.

Neubauer is rebounding from a bad year in 2000, in which she had only 4 wins in 62 starts. It was her worst year since she began training in 1988. In previous years, her win percentage hovered at the 20 percent mark. If things hadn't turn around Neubauer was contemplating giving up training. "We had bad luck last year," she said.

But the sun is shining on her again. Going into Saturday, she ranked 13th in the trainers standings, with a win percentage of 24.