At two, Alnaab Avenger<\/STRONG> wasn’t top of his class, but he did win four of his ten starts, including the Dragon Palace Handicap<\/EM>.\u00a0 The Alnaab son went on to be a reliable racehorse, winning nineteen of seventy-seven starts and hitting the board thirty-three times.\u00a0 Oklahoma’s feature race this week is named in his honor and ten two-year-olds will line up for a shot at the $50,000 prize.\u00a0 You can’t see the future from where they’re standing, but if stakes names are like fortune cookies, there are worse things to shoot for than “useful and durable.”<\/P> Of course, even better would be to include “fast,” and favored Rocking Forty<\/STRONG> is all about the speed.\u00a0 A bright chestnut son of Rock Hard Ten and a maiden Storm Cat mare, Rocking Forty pressed a hot pace in his debut effort before drawing off to win.\u00a0 The second- and third-place horses in that race both flattered his effort by winning their next starts, and Alyslew III BG<\/STRONG> is now twice stakes-placed.\u00a0 Rocking Forty himself went off as the second choice in the Grade III Television Stakes<\/EM>, but settled for an even-running sixth.\u00a0 He’s not the only speed in Saturday’s race, but does own the top speed figure.<\/P> One of those other speed horses is co-second choice Pyrrhic Victory<\/STRONG>.\u00a0 It’s a tempting-fate name for a racehorse, but so far, so good.\u00a0 He’s a son of Victory Gallop, out of a winner by Danzig.\u00a0 He beat a short, soft field at first asking, but met some legitimate race horses in the Alypeach Special<\/EM> and won that one, too.\u00a0 The brown colt may be hampered by a below-average jock, but his running style so far is very simple: get in front, and stay there.<\/P> It’s one thing to have a fast juvenile; it’s another thing altogether to have a tough and professional one.\u00a0 Sunset Mesa<\/STRONG>–a Sky Mesa son out of a Fusaichi Pegasus winner–looks like exactly that.\u00a0 He battled through the early fractions of his debut race and drew off, but was headed at the wire by a late-flying rival.\u00a0 Next time out, he wasn’t taking any chances at all: he went to the lead and steadily put ground between himself and any challengers.\u00a0 K. Clay doesn’t get many big-money mounts, but does win at a respectable clip.<\/P> Freshman sire Flower Alley is off to a pretty good start and Saint Alley<\/STRONG> (out of a Saint Ballado mare) hopes to become his second stakes winner.\u00a0 The brown colt stalked the pace in his only race thus far and then stormed down the stretch to nose out Wild Legend<\/STRONG> on the wire.\u00a0 The 73 speed rating earned there is very solid and he should have plenty of pace to run at here.<\/P> Four-time starter Forest Man<\/STRONG> (Forest Wildcat x Into the Woods<\/STRONG> – Quiet American) is the veteran of the field.\u00a0 His first two races came on the turf and he broke his maiden there.\u00a0 Crandyiii Stables decided to change things up, though, and moved him to the dirt for his third start.\u00a0 He won an entry-level allowance there with a respectable 77.\u00a0 Last out, he was a bit flat in the stretch, finishing third in stakes company.\u00a0 The winner there had an easy lead; things should be different Saturday.<\/P> Desertfox Stables is showing some faith in giving the ride on their Bullback Mtn<\/STRONG> (by Holy Bull, out of a Mt. Livermore mare) to M. Mantle, an apprentice jock making his afternoon debut.\u00a0 Bullback Mtn is the second of his two mounts.\u00a0 Third at first asking, he came back tighter in his second race and led gate-to-wire with a speed rating improvement of 11 points.\u00a0 Another such jump forward puts him in contention, and these things are not out of the question with two-year-olds.<\/P> Irish-bred Fasiano<\/STRONG> will break from the far inside, and Tapered Stables is hoping for a rags-to-riches tale.\u00a0 The son of Fasliyev and a Rubiano mare, Fasiano began his career with a flop on the turf and was unceremoniusly dropped into a $25,000 maiden claiming race.\u00a0 He liked that surface much better, racing midpack and then kicking clear for the win.\u00a0 A double dose of Northern Dancer blood says that he was barely getting warmed up at 4.5 furlongs, and he certainly rates as much of a chance as any other here.<\/P> Kirby’s New Fox<\/STRONG> marks a second entry for Desertfox Stables and it’s too bad no other bug boys were available: N. Lingner has proven that finding his way around the track isn’t exactly his best thing.\u00a0 Still, this High Yield colt out of Hunter’s Event<\/STRONG>, a Grade III-placed stakes winner whose second foal won two stakes at two, has the pedigree to maybe overcome a monkey on his back.\u00a0 He’s won one of three races thus far, with that victory coming on an off-track, and may need additional distance to do his best work.<\/P> Quietly-bred Millview Stories<\/STRONG> is by Delaware Township, out of a National Emblem mare.\u00a0 He’s only started once, in a New Mexico MSW, where he ran attentive to the pace and then pulled away to win by a length.\u00a0 The 63 speed rating is fine, and C. Schell is pretty capable.<\/P> Hailing from the same barn but uncoupled in the betting is maiden Millview West<\/STRONG>, by Alydeed, out of a Kerosene daughter.\u00a0 He made his first start just two weeks ago and ran midpack with a nice move on the turf, but couldn’t catch Salida<\/STRONG>.\u00a0 Strange things happen with two-year-olds, but T. Browne isn’t known for his mad skills.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" $50,000 Alnaab Avenger Special<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4382\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}