SALEM, N.H. - Only three of the seven entrants in Saturday's $25,000 Floyd Duncan Memorial Stakes for 2-year-olds have won. As a result, handicapping the race is a tall task.
Farmer Inthe Dell is the likely favorite despite having lost his only race. His second-place finish last month was filled with trouble, but he ended up with a Beyer Speed Figure of 65. In this field of babies, that stands out as the top figure.
Harford Ghost, a runaway winner at Monmouth Park in her career debut, heads a group of 11 2-year-old fillies, all seeking their first stakes win, in the $75,000 Kindergarten Stakes at Philadelphia Park.
Based on Beyer Speed Figures, Harford Ghost, trained by Deborah Bodner and ridden by Carlos Cruz, towers over her opposition. Her Beyer Figure of 95, earned at the same six-furlong distance as the Kindergarten, is more than 20 points higher than any other horse in the field who has raced 5 1/2 furlongs or farther.
In her last six races dating back to late April, 3-year-old filly For Rubies has been in front after the first six furlongs, yet her record at that sprint distance is only 1 for 6 lifetime.
For Rubies, whose greatest success has come in races beyond six furlongs but no longer than a mile, shortens up for Saturday's Grade 3, $100,000 Safely Kept Stakes at Pimlico.
A two-time stakes winner for trainer Lynn Whiting this year, For Rubies will be asked to race six furlongs for the first time since she won the Goldfinch Stakes at Prairie Meadows on April 26.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Two Item Limit needs a confidence-building race right now, so for the first time in three seasons of racing Two Item Limit will take advantage of her Illinois-bred status. Shipped by van from New York to Arlington in midweek, Two Item Limit faces five statebred opponents on Saturday in the Unique Type, a $42,000 overnight handicap race run at one mile on dirt.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - In one of the bigger upsets of the meet, Rene Douglas has gone a month without winning a stakes race. That can change Saturday. Douglas has landed the mount on Little Treasure, the favorite and horse to beat in the Grade 3 Pucker Up, a nine-furlong grass race for 3-year-old fillies.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Kalfaari goes for his fourth stakes win this year and his fifth win in as many starts when he faces eight other older horses here in Saturday's $30,000 R.J. Speers Stakes at 1 1/16 miles.
Owned and trained by Clint Willson, Kalfaari last raced in the Aug. 5 Wheat City Stakes, defeating Sir Pucker by three-quarters of a length.
Kalfaari probably will come from off the pace, which likely will be contested by Sir Pucker, Deputy Country, and perhaps Stritzel.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Reade Baker has been on a roll recently, sending out first-time starters Dolly Dynamite and Wire Whip to impressive victories for Stronach Stable at Woodbine last week.
Baker will be looking to pull off a feat of a different order Sunday when Light the Path, a filly whom he claimed for $40,000 here Aug. 2, contests the La Prevoyante Stakes in her second outing for the Mobile Stable.
Light the Path and the La Prevoyante, a one-mile turf race for Ontario-sired 3-year-old fillies, would have seemed an unlikely combination earlier this summer.
FORT ERIE, Ontario - Campbell Wilson has had his trainer's license for less than a year, but already he has put one of his runners into the Fort Erie record book.
On Monday, the Wilson-trained Oh Mar captured a five-furlong turf race in 56.80 seconds, breaking the record of 57.20 set by Plein D'Esprit in 1998 and since equaled by four runners.
The win was the sixth of the year for Wilson, who received his license late last September. The 26-year-old native of Niagara Falls, Ontario, sports a 27 percent win rate in 2002, and has had 22 starters.
SASKATOON, Saskatchewan - Good Old Sprite is on the verge of local stardom and can solidify his claim to Saskatchewan horse of the year honors with a win in Saturday's $6,500 City of Bridges Stakes for Saskatchewan-bred 3-year-old colts and geldings.
The City of Bridges is run over 1 1/16 miles and headlines the final card of the Marquis Downs meet.
Good Old Sprite, owned by R J Stable, is looking for his sixth win of the year and his second stakes score.