Travers runner-up in allowance

LEXINGTON, Ky. - A gap in the Keeneland stakes schedule pops up Sunday, but how can you tell? In among the field of six older horses in the $67,000 allowance feature is a Travers Stakes runner-up, a Grade 1 winner, and a well-regarded colt from the Juddmonte Farms powerhouse.

Mambo in Seattle, who missed by a whisker to Colonel John last August in the Travers at Saratoga, is the "name" horse in the seventh of nine Sunday races. Wicked Style, winner of the Grade 1 Breeders' Futurity here in 2007, and Fifteen Love, making his second North American start for Juddmonte and trainer Bobby Frankel, look like the prime opposition in the fourth-level allowance at 1 1/16 miles.

Mambo in Seattle "still had a valuable condition left, and we thought this would be a nice way to start the year with him," said trainer Neil Howard. "The Travers was a hard race, and he may have tailed off by the end of the year. But he's come back real good. I like the way he looks, and I'm very happy with him."

Mambo in Seattle, a 4-year-old Kingmambo colt, had a partially undescended testicle removed over the winter. He will have Robby Albarado back aboard in the short-stretch Polytrack race, which begins and ends at what otherwise is the sixteenth pole.

Wicked Style, with Edgar Prado to ride for trainer Rusty Arnold, had been written off by many fans after badly losing his form following his Breeders' Futurity score. But he suddenly came to life in his last start, a Gulfstream Park turf allowance on March 12, rallying to prevail at a $73.20 mutuel.

Fifteen Love, with Alan Garcia named, looks like a major danger. He was third at 2-1 in an overnight stakes Nov. 27 at Hollywood Park and has been training sharply toward his return.

Rounding out a well-matched field are Furthest Land, Hyracotherium, and Sidcup.

Two other allowances (races 5 and 8) also are carded for Sunday, when first post is 1:05 p.m. Eastern.