“Anytime you have to go against Keith Clark it will be a battle, but you never know what is going to happen.”
Century Downs Racetrack and Casino will again showcase the future stars on the grounds this stakes action this weekend. The two-year-old fillies will do battle on Saturday in two $25,000 divisions of the Neal Adler Stakes. As luck would have it the two main heavyweight fillies Jet Blue Burner and Divas Dragonfly drew into separate divisions. The two-year-old boys will also do battle in the Century Pace Stakes on Sunday, with two divisions also carrying a $25,000 purse.
Jet Blue Burner (Blue Burner-Blinkandyoumissit) looks like the one to beat in the first division of the Neal Adler Stakes. She was an impressive winner in her career debut in the ASHA Filly Stakes, setting a new track record for two-year-old pacing fillies by stopping the clock in 1:58.2. Greg Manning's homebred filly was sold to his nephew, leading driver/trainer Travis Cullen and looked equally impressive in her next stakes race -- the Starburst -- equaling the 1:58 track record set by her arch rival Divas Dragonfly just a few races earlier that day.
In the second division of the Neal Adler Stakes, the aforementioned Divas Dragonfly has been simply superb this year and will most likely be the public’s choice at post time. Divas Dragonfly will be in search of her fifth of the year and has yet to miss the board in seven career starts for trainer Carl Archibald, who continues to be very high on this filly.
“She came out of her last race real well. She has been very happy and training good. She has been sharp and she is very capable of keeping her streak going. We decided to pay the $2,800 supplement to get in the Neal Adler," added Archibald.
Divas Dragonfly’s career bankroll now stands at $35,429 and she will be looking to pad that amount on Saturday. Archibald hinted that this division will not be a walk in the park. “I think hall of famer Keith Clark may have a sleeper in this race in Credit The Shark,” warned Archibald. There is good competition...It promises to be a good race.”
Both Divas Dragonfly and Jet Blue Burner are future racing stars in the making and are on a collision course to meet in the $50,000 Alberta Stardust, the third and final preliminary leg of the Alberta Sires Stakes, on Monday, October 12.
Shifting to the boys on Sunday, the first division will feature future star Blue Star Jet (Blue Burner-Movin Uptown). He romped in his latest stakes win in the Lonestar Stakes back on September 13 and looks formidable again. However, trainer-driver Rod Hennessy believes this will not be an easy task.
“He came back OK from his last race and has been training real good," said Hennessy. “This will be a good test with us having the outside post. Trustee is a nice colt and he finally gets an inside post. He and Outlaw Gettinrdone will be the ones to beat...This will be a very good race for the public to come out and watch.”
The second division also sports an interesting storyline. Keep Coming (Mystery Chase-Keystone Divine) looks for a bounce back effort after finishing second as the overwhelming favourite in his division of the Lonestar stakes. Still a maiden, the Dan Sifert trainee looks to have tons of raw talent and actually won the Horizon stakes back on July 19 but was disqualified and placed seventh. Keep Coming looks to finally graduate after a couple of nice second-place stakes finishes to some pretty nice heavy hitters -- namely Blue Star Jet and Outlaw Gettinrdone.
“He is still a little green and does not know what he is doing on the track. I may have over corrected on his equipment last time out which allowed the winner to come up the rail,” commented trainer Dan Sifert. “We took the Murphy blind off and he has trained perfect.”
Sifert hopes this new adjustment may be the key for Keep Coming to finally break his maiden.
“My fingers are crossed that we finally have him figured out and that he runs to expectation.”
Classy Artist, who pulled the upset over Keep Coming in the Lonestar Stakes, has drawn the rail yet again and will seek to double up but his connections know it may be tough to repeat.
“We lucked out last time for sure. He came back great from his latest effort and is a very nice horse. We should not be too far out of it but Keep Coming will be tough,” added Giesbrecht.
Century Downs Racetrack and Casino will feature eight dashes set for Friday, followed by ten races on Saturday and Sunday’s cards all with a first race post time of 2:00 p.m. each day.
(A Trot Insider Exclusive by Frank Fontana)