Stockholder ships in for Mile

A three-time winner at three different ovals this year, Stockholder takes his traveling show to Evangeline Downs on Saturday night as he heads up the field for the $150,000 Evangeline Mile. The meeting's showcase event in the handicap division drew a field of eight and goes as the ninth race of the evening.

is trained by Scott Blasi, the assistant to Steve Asmussen, who is serving a six-month suspension for a medication infraction here in the spring. Stockholder comes off a one-length win in the $100,000 Omaha at Horsemen's Park on July 23.

Other 2006 victories for Stockholder, a 6-year-old son of Bertrando, include a front-running score in allowance company at Oaklawn Park in mid-April as well as a wire job in a money allowance at Lone Star Park in late June. That race came at Saturday night's distance of a mile. He also just missed in the Grade 3 Texas Mile in late April at Lone Star, and in 10 starts at the distance, Stockholder has five wins and three seconds. Jamie Theriot, one of four Louisiana Downs-based riders to take mounts in the Mile, will make the journey south on I-49 from Bossier City.

The race's starting highweight is . A 6-year-old Smart Strike gelding, High Strike Zone is a two-time winner locally and most recently shipped up to the northern part of the state and won the $75,000 Ark-La-Tex Handicap at Louisiana Downs. He helped set some blistering fractions of 45.57 seconds for the half-mile and 1:09.78 for three-quarters before kicking clear to win the 1 1/16-mile affair by almost four lengths. He appears to be in top form for trainer Amos Laborde and will once again be ridden by Ricky Faul.

, who lowered the track standard for a mile in winning the John Henry Stakes earlier in the season, will be coupled Saturday with New York invader Salic Law. Brandon Marks trains both for Carroll Castille. Kerwin Clark will once again be on board Watchem Smokey, while Marks has given the call on Salic Law to Marlon St. Julien.

The biggest wild card in the Mile appears to be Mauk Four, trained by Jerry Cart. The winner of the Grade 3 Fifth Season at Oaklawn Park in April 2005, Mauk Four has been idle since a fifth-place performance in the Alliance Stakes later that month. Jeff Burningham, who has won with two of the three mounts he has accepted from Cart here the last couple of seasons, is another making the trip in from Louisiana Downs.