EDMONTON, Alberta - Stakes winner Poor Iggy tops a field of 10 2-year-old colts and geldings in the $50,000 Birdcatcher Stakes, Monday's 6 1/2-furlong holiday feature at Northlands Park.
A Pennsylvania-bred trained by Joan Petrowski, Poor Iggy comes off a win in the Edmonton Juvenile, his second straight victory. Earlier, he finished second in a maiden special weight affair.
Poor Iggy has drawn the outside post and Rickey Walcott retains the mount.
VANCOUVER, British Colu-mbia - If Lord Nelson runs his usual race in the $40,000 Randall Plate Monday, he's the winner. The 7-year-old Lord Nelson would be favored at any distance over the six other horses in the field, but at 1 1/8 miles he's a standout, having won six times and finished second five times from 12 starts at the distance.
The reigning local older champion, Lord Nelson might be vulnerable, though. He's coming off of two very hard races where he just got nipped at the wire. His latest, the British Columbia Cup Classic Aug. 2, was particularly tough on him.
AUBURN, Wash. - Flamethrow-intexan will put a five-race win streak on the line when he takes on six other 3-year-olds in Monday's $100,000 Emerald Breeders' Cup Derby at 1 1/8 miles.
The front-running Flamethrow-intexan began his streak with three straight sprint scores over high claiming company at Hollywood Park in the spring. He was claimed for $62,500 out of the last of those wins by trainer Jim Penney for Grasshopper Stable on June 24, and he has since won at Emerald in the 1 1/16-mile Seattle Slew Handicap and in an allowance prep Aug. 15.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - When Midas Eyes returned to the races on Aug. 25 and came within .40 of a second of the track record off a 190-day break, he showed he could win off a long layoff. In the Grade 1 at Saratoga on Saturday, he showed he could win on short rest, too.
Midas Eyes, with Edgar Prado aboard, put away 9-5 favorite Strong Hope in the final furlong and was ridden out to a 1 3/4-length victory over Clock Stopper. Although Clock Stopper made a late charge, he never threatened the winner. Gygistar rallied for third and finished a nose in front of Strong Hope.
Pollard's Vision may be blind in one eye, but he has seen more of this country than most horses in training.
The Pollard's Vision tour makes its next stop Monday at Philadelphia Park where he could very well be the horse to beat in the Grade 3, $750,000 . A field of 12 was entered for the 1 1/8-mile race, including the Grade 1 winner Tapit, who is stuck in the outside post in his first start in four months.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Since arriving from France in early summer, has dominated the 3-year-old turf division at Del Mar this summer with flashy wins in two stakes. That streak will be threatened in Monday's $400,000 Del Mar Derby by Fast and Furious, another French import.
Blackdoun and Fast and Furious, both of whom were stakes winners in France, figure to dominate the betting in the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby, run over 1 1/8 miles on turf.
CINCINNATI - Ken McPeek will be happy to relive his own little Labor Day tradition Monday. McPeek will drive from his Louisville home to River Downs for the $200,000 Cradle Stakes, a Grade 3 race in which McPeek has two wins and two seconds in recent years.
McPeek stands a very good chance to make this another lucrative road trip, most notably because of Diamond Isle, whom McPeek said "could be a serious, serious racehorse." Diamond Isle will start from post 5 in a field of eight 2-year-olds in the 28th running of the Cradle.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - rarely breaks from the gate well in his races, but he certainly comes on at the end.
Trainer Ken McPeek has freshened up Prince Arch off an eight-week layoff for Monday's Grade 3 Saranac at Saratoga, a $100,000-added feature at 1 3/16 miles for 3-year-olds on the turf.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Snake Mountain, a multiple graded stakes winner who has not raced since March, makes his return to the races Monday in a $60,000 classified allowance race on closing day at Saratoga.
Snake Mountain, winner of four consecutive stakes from 2002-03, suffered a fracture to the top of the sesamoid bone in his right foreleg in April. He underwent surgery at the New Jersey Equine Clinic and began breezing July 21. He has six published workouts, including a mile work in 1:47 on Aug. 25, leading up to this. Richard Migliore rides.
