Unbeatens side by side

MIAMI - Among the highlights of Saturday's Florida Million program at Calder Race Course are Best of the Rest's title defense in the Carl G. Rose Classic, the much-anticipated meeting of undefeated 2-year-olds Sir Oscar and Wynn Dot Comma in the Jack Price Juvenile, and jockey Jerry Bailey's quest to break two riding records.

Entries for the six stakes races, worth a combined $1 million in purses, on the second annual Florida Million card were drawn Wednesday. The most significant developments came when Wynn Dot Comma and Sir Oscar drew alongside one another in posts 4 and 5 for the seven-furlong Jack Price, and 122-pound highweight Smok'n Frolic drew the outside post in the 11-horse field entered for the $200,000 Elmer Heubeck Distaff Handicap.

Bailey, who has mounts in five of the six stakes races on the card, is two stakes wins shy of Mike Smith's single-season North American record of 68 set in 1994. He also needs $258,000 in earnings to eclipse the single-season earnings mark of $22,871,814 he established last year.

Bailey will ride Wynn Dot Comma, who will vie for favoritism with Sir Oscar in the $150,000 Jack Price Juvenile; odds-on favorite Chatter Chatter in the $150,000 Joe O'Farrell Juvenile Fillies; likely favorite Proud Man in the $150,000 Bonnie Heath Turf Cup; Sing Me Back Home in the $150,000 Jack Dudley Sprint; and The Judge Sez Who in the $200,000 Carl G. Rose Classic.

John Velazquez, the third-winningest jockey in the nation this year and fifth overall on the money-won list, will also be in town for Florida Million day. He will ride Smok'n Frolic, Pick'em in the Sprint, and Music's Storm in the Turf Cup for trainer Todd Pletcher, along with Ice Wynnd Fire in the Juvenile.

Only five horses were entered for the Carl G. Rose Classic, including The Judge Sez Who, the runner-up to Best of the Rest in the race a year ago, who was supplemented by trainer Milt Wolfson at a cost of $5,000. Rounding out the lineup are Tour of the Cat, winner of the Jack Dudley Sprint on last year's inaugural Florida Million program, Dancing Guy, and Longford Arms.

Best of the Rest rallied from just off the pace to score a 1 1/2-length decision over The Judge Sez Who in the 2002 Rose. He has started only five times since that race, including the richest victory of his career earlier this year in the $1 million Sunshine Millions Classic at Gulfstream Park. In his last start, his first in nearly six months, Best of the Rest was beaten a length by Tour of the Cat.

Tour of the Cat upset My Cousin Matt to win the 2002 Jack Dudley Sprint and has won his last two starts going a distance of ground, including the Grade 3 Spend a Buck Handicap, beating Best of the Rest after getting away with a slow early pace.

The Judge Sez Who is coming off a second knee injury and has not started since finishing 11 lengths behind Best of the Rest in the Grade 3 Skip Away Handicap at Gulfstream on April 20.

Sir Oscar and Wynn Dot Comma have combined to win all nine of their career starts. Sir Oscar will be turning back in distance after completing a sweep of the Florida Stallion Stakes with a 2 1/4-length triumph in the 1 1/16-mile In Reality Stakes. Wynn Dot Comma has never been beyond six furlongs but owns the highest Beyer Speed Figure in the field, a 95 earned for his easy four-length tally in the Birdonthewire Stakes.

Despite all the hoopla surrounding the two undefeated youngsters, the Jack Price may not be a two-horse race, with the promising stakes winner Stolen Time among the seven other 2-year-olds entered in the race.