Spend a Buck

TRACK BANDIT PREVIEWS

ELECTRIFY (Delaware Township) heads a contentious field of 12 in Saturday's

$100,000 Spend a Buck H. (G3) at Calder, and the Ed Plesa Jr. trainee enters

this 1 1/16-mile test riding a two-race win streak. The chestnut gelding most

recently added the Ambehaving S. at this track and distance to his record, and prior to

that one scored in the Mecke H. at nine furlongs. For both starts the

four-year-old earned triple-digit BRIS Late Pace ratings, and loves Calder,

owning a 6-0-1 line from nine starts on the track's dirt. Elvis Trujillo, aboard

for Electrify's past two, returns to the saddle, and the pair could find

themselves in the winner's circle yet again.

SUPERVISOR (Skip Trial) was the 2005 winner of the Spend a Buck, but couldn't

defend his title when fifth last season. He didn't do too well in 2006, but has

shown more over this summer, placing in two stakes. Though he was fourth in the Ambehaving, the seven-year-old gelding still earned a 115 Late Pace rating for

his game late run and could come late again here to finish out the exacta.

Roberto Alvarado Jr. will be aboard for the first time.

REHOBOTH (Wagon Limit) is another Calder specialist, racking up 16 top-three

finishes from 21 local starts, and finished second in the Memorial Day H. (G3) earlier

this season. The Frank Gomez-trained four-year-old owns competitive numbers when

compared to others in this field and has been working well at Calder of late.

The dark bay could finish out the Spend a Buck trifecta for a second year in a

row.

FORTUNATE TRAIL (Fortunate Prospect) is our sleeper special. The six-year-old

has spent much of his career in the claiming ranks and will be making his stakes

debut in this spot. However, he's been

winning by nice margins in starter allowances, racking up a 7-2-0 mark from his past nine starts.

Fortunate Trail will probably offer long odds and is worth taking a chance on

for the win.

OLYMPIC (Danzig) was transferred to Marty Wolfson earlier this year and made

his first start for his new trainer a three-length allowance/optional claiming

win at Calder. The bay five-year-old added another allowance last out, and has

earned nice enough BRIS Speed numbers to challenge for it all under Eddie

Castro. YES HE'S THE MAN (Yes It's True) will be stretching out past seven

furlongs for the first time here, but could use the extra ground to finally

return to the winner's circle. The four-year-old has been going well of late and

deserves consideration for the bottom of the gimmicks.

HOW'S YOUR HALO (Halo's Image) has spent his last nine races sprinting, but

has done well going longer distances in the past. The Brian Prichard trainee

just missed in last year's Carterista H. going 8 1/2 furlongs and could put forth

a career-best performance to threaten in the top three. POP GOES THE TIGER

(Tiger Ridge) captured an allowance over the track earlier in the summer and was

third in the Ambehaving two back. The gray three-year-old could grab part.

If ZOOBSTICK (Groomstick) gets away with an uncontested lead, he could take

it all the way to winner's circle like in the Gray Pride Starter S. in late

July. However, we just don't see that happening against this bunch. BOB'S PROUD

MOMENT (Proud and True) has spent nearly half of his career on the turf and

hasn't done so well when forced to the main track when the grass races were

moved. He was fourth in last year's Spend a Buck, but seems to have tailed off

quite a bit since that start.

WHOS CRYING NOW (Concerto) has been well beaten of late and doesn't look to

factor. SUMMER BOOK (Notebook) probably won't be able to keep up against these.