Breeders’ Bowl Classic Winner Faces Tough Field In Benny Badger

Squirrel4’s Breeders’ Bowl Classic winner Solar Song faces ten rivals in the $250,000 Benny Badger Stakes (gr. II) at Wisconsin on Saturday. The 5-year-old son of Deputy Minister will be ridden by M. Snider in the 1 3/8-mile main track event.

Since notching the Breeders’ Bowl victory, Solar Song had raced once, finishing a close-up third in a 10-furlong grade III race in Vermont. In one career race past 10 furlongs, Solar Song won a 12-furlong owner-restricted stakes as a sophomore, but the resulting speed figure was a drop off from previous figures achieved in races ranging from 9.5- to 10-furlongs. Solar Song has won 14 of 29 career races and amassed $9,387,950 in earnings.

Though Solar Song is the distinct favorite on the morning line at 5-2, there are plenty of distance-tested challengers in the Benny Badger field. Chief among these are Buzzbringsthebeers and Barb’s Adventure.

Gr8bigsea’s Buzzbringsthebeers finished ahead of Solar Song in Vermont last out while finishing second, a head behind Benny Badger entrant Sith. A 5-year-old son of Vindication, Buzzbringsthebeer notched triple-digit speed figures in races ranging in distance from 1 3/16- to 1 5/8 miles last year and has finished first or second in each of his last 10 starts.

Barb’s Adventure’s entry in this race may or may not be a hidden class drop, with his last coming in the owner-restricted Del-Penn Champions’ Day Classic, won by stablemate and Eddie Haskell Stakes (gr. I) winner Alina Dancer. Sprintbarn’s Barb’s Adventure’s highest career speed figure (107) was earned at the Benny Badger distance and since equaled in a grade II stakes win at 10 furlongs. The pedigree of Barb’s Adventure (Palace Music x Al Hattab x Arctic Tern) is interesting as well–especially the unfashionable dam side—which presents two crosses to Mahmoud and two to Almahmoud in the first five generations and but one occurrence of Northern Dancer, Mr. Prospector or Seattle Slew (Northern Dancer, third generation, via The Minstrel—Palace Music). Barb’s Adventure is 6-1 on the morning line.

Wonderboy Cougar will likely be up with the pace early, but it has been over a year since he’s visited the winner’s circle following a stakes appearance. Still Karlch’s 6-year-old son of Barathea made Solar Song earn his Sand Castle Classic (gr. I) win last spring and has been highly competitive in other grade I races since. Stamina won’t be an issue for the $5.6 million earner and he may be ready for a peak race after a two-race freshening in the allowance ranks.

The chances for Sunkitten’s Old Pulpit would be enhanced with an off track, but alas the forecast is for good weather on Saturday. The 5-year-old son of Pulpit (out of a Seeking the Gold mare) is still seeking his initial graded stakes win. He finished fourth last start, finishing about three lengths behind Solar Song in Sith’s Vermont victory. He earned a 107 speed figure in his penultimate start, a win in the 1 3/8-mile Lt. Slew Stakes on a track labeled “good.”

Sith earned his first graded stakes win in his last start and again faces the remaining top-four finishers from that race while adding an extra furlong, which might be beyond his limit. The 5-year-old son of Forty Niner has won five of 18 career starts and has been a bit of an enigma for owner-trainer Lurve, firing off occasional big races and disappointing in softer spots.

Tryarder’s Crafty Part has yet to meet a race he wouldn’t like to enter and will make his 4-year-old debut Saturday (like clockwork, a fortnight after his last start) after a 20-race sophomore campaign. The son of Sadler’s Wells has an affinity for the 1 3/8-mile distance, but will have to regain his mid-autumn form to challenge.

Deantroops’ Open the Gate has the speed to challenge, but the 11^th furlong remains a question he’ll have to answer on Saturday. The 5-year-old son of Jump Start (out of a Distant View mare) enters the Benny Badger having earned a speed figure of 106 or higher in three of his last four starts (not bad for a horse who began his career in July of his 3-year-old season by earning a 3 speed figure). He’s another who doesn’t like to sit around the barn, having raced 17 times last year.

Pedroza3 has done a nice job since acquiring former claimer Kowboy last year, going 6-2-0 in nine starts for the new connections. In December, the 4-year-old son of Empire Maker went straight from an alw n3x race to grade I company in notching his fourth straight victory in the Topicount Special on Del-Penn Champions’ Day. In his first start this year, he flopped in the 13-furlong Gallant Socks Handicap (gr. III), finishing 11^th, 30 lengths behind the victor. His best speed figures are below those of his rivals, but a form reversal would not be a major surprise.

Togasans’ Tuna Man won a 1 ½-mile grade I race as a 3-year-old last year but has been held winless in seven subsequent starts. The son of Woodman gets additional stamina from Pleasant Colony on the dam side but needs a return to his August form to compete in this salty field.

Rounding out the field is Fats’ 8-year-old Green Green Grass, who owns the highest career-best speed figure in the field, a 121 set in an eight-length stakes win in 2003. Alas, it is now 2007 and Green Green Grass hasn’t earned a triple-digit speed figure since July of 2005. Though the Green Green Grass just ain’t what he used to be, he’s still competitive in the allowance ranks after 66 career races and did finish fourth in the Grey Fox Stakes (gr. III) last time out.