Softer spot for Quiet Approach

Canadian Juvenile winner Quiet Approach figures to be a short-priced favorite when he returns to Northlands Park in Sunday's third race.

Quiet Approach is the only stakes winner in the six-furlong first-level allowance race for 3-year-olds. The race drew six horses.

Trained by Rod Cone, Quiet Approach ran into a tough group of 3-year-olds at Hastings in his first start of 2009, finishing fifth by 16 3/4 lengths. The winner of the $50,000 optional claiming race on April 26, Pop Artist, had shipped in from New York, where he was coming off of a fourth-place finish in the $69,000 Fred Capossela.

Quiet Approach figures to move forward in his second start of the year, and his bullet five-furlong work on May 12 is a good indication that he is coming into Sunday's race in excellent shape.

Hugh Huston will ride Quiet Approach.

Pure First could be the main threat, with leading rider Rickey Walcott accepting the mount. Pure First, who is trained by Joan Petrowski, hit the board in all three of his races at Northlands as a 2-year-old. He just missed winning when he debuted in a six-furlong maiden race on July 19 and then finished third behind Robo Willie and Quiet Approach in the $50,000 Birdcatcher Stakes Aug. 3. Pure First closed out his year by winning a maiden race on Aug. 23.

Mr. Shader also finished his 2-year-old campaign with a win in a maiden race, and the 65 Beyer Speed Figure he received is the top figure in the field.