Song of Pirates sharp shipper for Saguaro

PHOENIX The usual source for a scary invader into Turf Paradise is Southern California. Saturday's $45,000 Saguaro Stakes, however, sees something different. Northwest hotshot Song of Pirates invades from Emerald Downs in Washington for the six-furlong event for 3-year-olds.

Song of Pirates, owned by Three Sisters Thoroughbreds and trained by Mike Chambers, was no secret from the word go. A $900,000 2-year-old purchase, he romped by 4 1/2 lengths in his sprint debut at Emerald July 21. He backed that up with even a better performance there Aug. 19, blasting allowance foes by 7 1/2 lengths at a mile in the slop, earning an 88 Beyer Speed Figure and a berth in the $97,000 Emerald Downs Derby.

Sent off the 1-2 favorite in the 1 1/8-mile derby, Song of Pirates stalked the pace in third and got within a head of the lead in midstretch, but faltered to finish third, beaten by 2 1/4 lengths. Now he moves back to a sprint. Glenn Corbett has the call.

Snowbound Warrior comes here sharp off a strong Yavapai campaign that saw him win two allowance races before finishing second in the Yavapai Derby Aug. 18, his last start. He boasts two bullet half-mile works here for this (46.80 seconds on Oct. 7, and 47 on Sept. 24). Miguel Hernandez rides.

Quintons Fleet graduated by 13 3/4 lengths here in May 2006 and then won the ATBA Sales Stakes here by 6 3/4 lengths. He was gone for nine months and in one of his comeback races won the Silvey's Image, a turf sprint, here in April. He hasn't run since but boasts plenty of strong works. Scott Stevens rides.

Smokem Slew comes in from New Mexico where he won 3 of his last 4, including an 8 1/2-length allowance win at Albuquerque Sept. 18.