Mountaineer’s farewell to summer has the look of a summer rerun. Several of the same horses who played prominent roles in turf stakes on last month’s West Virginia Derby undercard will be back in action for the $75,000 turf stakes co-features that kick off Monday’s Labor Day card.

The mile-and-70-yard Labor Day, which goes as race 1, pits three of the five top runners from the West Virginia Speaker’s Cup, including winner Vanquisher and runner-up Timeless Fashion, who were separated by a half-length.

Tenth Power and The Nutz meet for the fourth time this summer when they headline a field of seven in the Labor Day Stakes at Columbus on Monday afternoon.
Tenth Power has won the last two meetings with The Nutz, scoring by three-quarters of a length in the $50,000 Omaha Stakes at Horsemen’s Park on July 25 and most recently winning by 1 3/4 lengths in an allowance prep for this race here on Aug. 21. Tenth Power has won eight races this year and is tied for second nationally with three other horses for the most wins this year.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Is a maiden making just the fourth start of his career good enough to propel himself to the top of the 3-year-old class at Hastings with one race remaining before the Grade 3, $150,000 British Columbia Derby Sept. 26? We’ll find out when Ain runs in the $50,000 Richmond Derby Trial Monday.

The 1 1/16-mile feature drew 10 horses and heads a strong nine-race card that includes the $50,000 Hong Kong Jockey Club for 3-year-old fillies and the PNE President’s Speed Handicap, featuring Burj Dubai.

High-profile trainers Todd Pletcher and Linda Rice will try to repeat past success when they ship in lightly raced 2-year-olds for a pair of six-furlong stakes for New York-breds on Monday’s holiday card at Finger Lakes.

Pletcher, who won last year’s Aspirant for 2-year-old colts and geldings with 8-5 favorite Ibboyee and the 1997 running with Mellow Roll, has a prime contender in Monday’s $128,000 Aspirant (race 8) with debut winner Hysterical Cat.

Quite a Handful will be shaking top-class turf horses Debussy and Gio Ponti on Monday when he invades from Chicago for the $125,000 DeBartolo Memorial at Remington Park.

The DeBartolo, at 1 1/8 miles on turf, drew a field of 10 horses, including millionaire Going Ballistic and the Grade 3-winning filly Peach Brew. Remington will also run the $50,000 Ricks Memorial for fillies and mares as part of a special afternoon card that starts at 1:30 p.m. Central.

Just about everything connected with Comedero indicates that the 3-year-old colt is strictly a sprinter.

He’s 8 for 10 lifetime, including seven stakes victories, but in his lone try beyond seven furlongs, Comedero faded to 11th, beaten 23 lengths, last fall in an experiment going one mile at Remington Park.

Pedigree-wise, Comedero is cut out to be a pure sprinter. His dam, Pawnee Path, was 7 for 15 in her career – all dirt sprints. His sire, Posse, won five stakes in his two-year racing career, all at distances between 5 1/2 and seven furlongs.

Pat Byrne trained Awesome Again to an undefeated season and a Breeders’ Cup Classic victory in 1998, so he knows a good horse when he sees one. Having slipped under the racing radar in recent years, Byrne will be trying to recapture a sliver of the national spotlight Monday when he sends out a son of Awesome Again named Awesome Attack in the showcase race of the River Downs meet, the $100,000 Cradle Stakes.

The historic All American Futurity has eluded trainer Blane Wood, but it has not been for a lack of trying. Last year, he had three runners in the field, with the best finish a third.

Monday, Wood has one hope in a field of nine – Miss Racy Jess, who is unbeaten in three starts. The $2,050,000 All American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico will be her stakes debut. One of two fillies in the field, Miss Racy Jess won a division of the 440-yard time trials in 21.43 seconds on Aug. 19, recording the fifth-fastest qualifying time.

The Glenn Delahoussaye-trained entry of Tough Brush and Jump Jump look to pack a solid one-two punch in Monday night’s $50,000 Lafayette Stakes at Evangeline Downs. The Delahoussaye tandem will face eight other 2-year-olds in the closing night feature at six furlongs.
Tough Brush should be a primary pace player in the Lafayette. He comes off a fourth-place finish in the $100,000 Shine Young Futurity here after forcing the issue early. Delahoussaye is adding blinkers to Tough Brush, which could sharpen the colt’s speed further. Kerwin Clark will handle the riding duties.

Fred Bradley was merely a wee lad when the Dade Park track photographer included him in a winner’s circle shot in 1938. Little would anyone have known then that Bradley would be back at the Henderson, Ky., track more than 70 years later as the owner-breeder of one of the most popular racehorses of his era in Kentucky, a gelding named Brass Hat, who on Monday will make his first-ever start at what now is Ellis Park.