Playfair’s Big Weekend Includes Breeders’ Cup

The Breeders’ Cup program, thoroughbred racing’s $10 million day, and two of this fall’s most important local 2-year-old stakes races will share the spotlight this weekend as Playfair Race Course reaches the two-thirds mark of the Spokane horse racing season.

All seven Breeders’ Cup races and six Playfair events, headed by the Juvenile Hers Stakes, will be run Saturday, beginning at 8:55 a.m. Gates will open and wagering will begin, at Playfair and at the 16 simulcast locations around the state, at 8 a.m. This year’s Breeders’ Cup races will be run at Belmont Park in New York.

The Juvenile His Stakes, companion feature to the Juvenile Hers, will be run on Sunday. Post time will be at 1:30 p.m.

Racing also is scheduled for Friday and Monday at 3 p.m.

The Juvenile Hers and the Juvenile His are the second legs of the $100,000 Playfair Challenge Series. Both will be run at the Playfair Course distance of about 6-1/2 furlongs. Red Silver Hope and Toughy’s Gold, winners of their divisions of the All West Futurity Oct. 14 and Oct. 15, will be trying for repeat victories that would maintain their eligibility for the Challenge Series bonus.

Sale grows

Supplemental catalogs, containing 22 additional entries, for the 14th annual All West Thoroughbred Yearling Sale are now available. With the additions, there are 78 head lined, including 42 colts or geldings and 36 fillies. The sale, next Monday at the Spokane Interstate Fairgrounds, will begin at 7 p.m. Horses that pass through the ring become eligible for the 1996 All West Futurity and the 1997 All West Derby.

Nominations close

Nominations are due Thursday for the $10,000 added Spokane Derby, the West’s oldest thoroughbred stakes race. The Derby, first run in 1891, will match 3-year-olds at 1-1/8 miles with All West Derby winner Inlovewiththesport and Eagle Hardware Derby runner-up Super Ciel as the expected favorites.

, DataTimes