Stiffest test yet for Check the Account

Fastest-qualifier Check the Account will try to show she can be a Grade 1 derby prospect in 2005 when she seeks her fourth straight victory Saturday against a deep field in the Grade 2, $185,165 Sunland Fall Futurity at Sunland Park.

The four fastest qualifiers come into the 400-yard finals with a combined 16 wins, 3 seconds, and 2 thirds from 23 starts. A Fall Futurity score would be the most important career victory for each of the finalists.

Check the Account, a daughter of leading freshman sire Separatist, won her maiden by three lengths at Sam Houston Race Park on Aug. 29 and won her next two starts while moving up in class, including her Fall futurity trial on Dec. 3. She won her trial by 3 1/2 lengths with a time of 19.24 seconds for the 400 yards. That time is approximately three-quarters of a length faster than that of the second-fastest qualifier, Bj a Dash of Rum.

Although Check the Account showed speed in her trial, Bj a Dash of Rum could be the favorite in the Fall Futurity. Bj a Dash of Rum has six wins and a second from seven starts and also has the class edge, with a win in the Grade 3 Cowboy Classic Futurity at Wyoming Downs. His only setback came when he was beaten a head as the 7-5 favorite in the Grade 3 Four Corners Futurity.

Corona on Tap, the third-fastest qualifier, has won his last three races, including a 1 1/4-length win in the Grade 2 Kansas Futurity at The Woodlands. He then scored a three-length victory in his Sunland Fall Futurity trial, running 400 yards in 19.364 seconds.

Like Check the Account, Si Puede, the fourth-fastest qualifier, won his maiden at Sam Houston and then won his next two starts - a nonwinners-of-two allowance race and his Fall Futurity trial. He was tested in his trial when he finished a neck ahead of sixth-fastest qualifier Strawfly Romance, the fourth-place finisher in the Grade 1, $1 million Texas Classic Futurity.

Also in the Fall Futurity lineup are Kathys Star Quest, who finished third in the Texas Classic Futurity, and BS My Favorite Sport, who was second by a nose in the Grade 3 West/Southwest Juvenile Challenge.