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Field of seven to jump in Iroquois Demonstrative and Divine Fortune, the respective winner and second finisher in last year's season-ending Colonial Cup, will meet again on Saturday in the Grade 1, $150,000 Iroquois at Percy Warner Park in Nashville, Tennessee. The Iroquois will conclude an eight-race program that features three other stakes races. First post time is 1 p.m. (CDT) for the richest racing program on the National Steeplechase Association's spring calendar. Demonstrative collected his second Grade 1 victory of the 2012 season when he swooped from the back of the field to overtake Divine Fortune and win the Colonial Cup by one length on November 17. The stalwart Elusive Quality gelding also won the New York Turf Writers Cup, the premier steeplechase race of the Saratoga season. Now a six-year-old, Demonstrative will be making his first 2013 start over fences, but trainer Richard Valentine saddled him for a victory in a training flat race at the Queen's Cup steeplechase on April 27. Regular jockey Robbie Walsh will be in the saddle for the Iroquois' testing three miles. Divine Fortune has had one jump start this year, a workmanlike victory in the $25,000 Sandhills Cup allowance at the Stoneybrook Steeplechase in North Carolina on April 6. The veteran set the pace under Darren Nagle and won by 2 3/4 lengths. Trained by Racing Hall of Fame member Jonathan Sheppard, Divine Fortune had only one allowance win last year, but he racked up strong second-place finishes in the year's two richest races, the Iroquois and the Grand National at Far Hills, New Jersey. Nagle, currently leading the jockey standings, will be in the saddle. Slip Away, the 2010 champion steeplechaser, will contest the Iroquois after finishing second behind Divine Fortune in the Sandhills Cup. The Skip Away gelding has ample experience over the Percy Warner course having finished second behind Tax Ruling in the Iroquois in 2010 and 2011. Trainer Tom Voss named three-time champion jockey Paddy Young to ride Slip Away. Voss also will saddle Cornhusker, a distant sixth in the Temple Gwathmey at Middleburg, Virginia, on April 20. Kieran Norris will ride. Trainer Bruce Miller will saddle Molotof, a French-bred six-year-old who won a steeplechase handicap in February and most recently was third in a steeplechase allowance at Ascot. Bernie Dalton will ride Molotof. Leading owner Irv Naylor, who raced two-time Iroquois winner Tax Ruling, will send out Lake Placid and Organisateur. Both are trained by Brianne Slater and both will be looking for their first 2013 victories. James Slater, the trainer's husband, will be aboard Lake Placid, the 2011 novice champion who finished seventh in the Temple Gwathmey. Organisateur, who missed the 2012 racing season and came back with a fourth-place finish in the Block House allowance hurdle at Tryon, North Carolina, on April 20, will be ridden by reigning champion jockey Ross Geraghty. Bet Horseracing Free Online at TwinSpires.com
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