Over $350,000 in purses will be contested on the stakes-laden Mid-Summer Classic (Mon., Aug. 6) card at Century Downs, with three-year-olds taking centre stage in the Gord and Illa Rumpel Memorial for pacing fillies and the Ralph Klein Memorial for pacing colts and geldings.
Fourteen male pacers will contest a pair of $10,000 eliminations for the Klein, carded as races six and seven, and the second split is shaping up as a showdown between the top three-year-olds from Alberta and British Columbia.
Freedoms Rescue, fresh off his 1:54.3 win in the $45,700 Alberta Marksman on July 22, has been installed as the 7-5 morning-line favourite and will start from post 2 in the field of seven. David Kelly retains the driving assignment of the 6-time winner for trainer Glenn Lutz. Among those Freedoms Rescue will square off against are the top two finishers in the $75,000 Keith Linton at Fraser Downs in April: Boiling Oar and Canadian Pharoh. Boiling Oar, installed the 5-2 second choice from post 5, has been off since his first-over triumph in the Linton, but qualified well in 1:57.4 upon arriving in Alberta last week. Jim Marino trains and drives the five-time winner in six career starts. Canadian Pharoh returned to action last month with a pair of conditioned wins at Century following his runner-up effort in the Linton. Rod Therres once again drives the 5-time winner from the pole for trainer Darryl Cutting.
The first elimination sees Cheddar Jack, winner of the $50,000 Brad Gunn on Canada Day, look to bounce back from two straight defeats, but he will have to do so from post 7. Paul Davies will drive the 8-time winner for trainer Rod Hennessy. The 2-1 early favourite is Marksman runner-up Screen Test, whom Brandon Campbell will drive from post 4 for Dan Sifert. Alberta Plainsman runner-up Custards Laststand (Kelly Hoerdt, 3-1, post 1) and Better Watch Out (Serge Masse, 5-2, post 3) are among the other notables in the first elimination.
The top four finishers from each elimination, plus one fifth-place finisher drawn by lot, will enter an open draw for the $125,000 Klein final, scheduled as the finale of the 10-race program.
A full field of nine three-year-old pacing fillies will square off in the $125,000 Gord and Illa Rumpel Memorial in race nine. Elimination winners No Mo Fo Joe and Scardy Cat will square off against $45,000 Alberta Diamond winner Hot Kiss and $50,000 Meridian Breeders Stakes winner You Talk Too Much in what figures to be a contentious event.
No Mo Fo Joe, the 5-2 early second choice from post 1, was a 1:54 pillar-to-post winner in her elimination last week. The daughter of Roll With Joe has won six of 16 races this season, including three of her last four by a combined 20-3/4 lengths. Trainer Nathan Sobey once again will drive. Scardy Cat, who arrived from Minnesota's Running Aces for last week's elimination, took her lifetime mark of 1:54 in victory while teamed back up with trainer-driver Jim Marino. The daughter of Sportswriter has been installed as the 2-1 morning-line favourite from post 4.
Hot Kiss (Dave Hudon, 10-1, post 5), who won the Alberta Marksman at 15-1 on July 21, gave futile chase from the pocket to finish third behind Scardy Cat in last week's elimination, while You Talk Too Much (Keith Clark, 12-1, post 7) looks to rebound from a failed first-over bid last week after her sweeping three-wide move to capture the Meridian Breeders Stakes on Canada Day.
Two $22,500 Century Bets Stakes divisions for two-year-old pacing colts and geldings, as well as a pair of $22,500 Emerald Filly Stakes splits for freshman pacing fillies, anchor the undercard.
To view Monday's harness racing entries, click the following link: Monday Entries – Century Downs.
For program pages (courtesy TrackIT), click the following link: Monday Program Pages – Century Downs.