Derby Next For Montana Star

Montana sensation Inlovewiththesport and Super Ciel are expected to battle it out for this season’s 3-year-old championship at Playfair Race Course on Sunday when they head a field of 10 in the $10,000 added Spokane Derby.

The West’s oldest thoroughbred stakes race, The Derby, at 1-1/8 miles, was first run around what is now Corbin Park in 1891. The 1995 renewal will be the 89th.

Racing is scheduled for today, Saturday, Sunday and Monday as Playfair heads into the final four weeks of its late-summer and fall meet. Salt has been added to the sandy racing surface to prevent the unseasonably cold weather from freezing the 5-furlong oval.

Inlovewiththesport will be trying for his seventh consecutive victory. Fresh from a galloping, 6-1/2-length victory in the $21,680 All West Derby, the Murray Creek Stable runner will carry 122 pounds, one less than Super Ciel. Inlovewiththesport won the major 3-year-old races at Great Falls, Missoula and Billings.

Super Ciel returns to his age group after pressing the pace and finishing fifth, beaten less than five lengths by older rivals, in the Playfair Mile. Victorious five times in 10 starts this year, he was awarded second money, after placing third, in the $56,000 Eagle Hardware Derby at Yakima Meadows and was the favorite and pacesetter in the $100,000 Alberta Derby at Stampede Park in Calgary.

The favorites may have to contend with Just Another Buzz, which has trained smartly since rallying from last place to win the Playfair Breeders’ Cup on Oct. 7. Just Another Buzz’s trainer, Dick Wright, also preparing Chirrup for next weekend’s $30,000 added Spokane Futurity, will be seeking his third stakes triumph of the season.

Marty Wentz will ride Inlovewiththesport, and Chris Martin has the mount on Super Ciel.

The list of contenders also includes Rolling Eyes, a fast closer in both of his starts this fall.

Leaders pull away

Trainer Bruce Wagar is headed for the most decisive championship win since 1991. Wagar, who is assisted by his daughter, Annette, won six races last weekend, bumping his total to 22 for 33 days of racing. He is far ahead of runner-up Ray Tracy Jr., whose 13 victories include stakes wins by Red Silver Hope and Invest In Festin.

Jason Eads has just about wrapped up the riding title. The 23-year-old Californian, who rode five winners last Friday, has 65 victories, and his 22.9 win percentage is among the top five in track history. Darrell Brinkerhoff has a firm grip on second with 43 wins.

Mark Hadley, fifth in the standings, has headed for Turf Paradise in Phoenix.

Betting climbs

After the annual million-dollar burst from Breeders’ Cup Day, daily average betting has reached an alltime peak.

Through Sunday, the season total, for 32 days of racing, was $15,064,610, an average of $470,769, almost 4 percent above the final figure for the simulcast portion of the 1994 season. Because it is the first with simulcast wagering every day, the present meet will break the track’s all-time record.

Going fourth

Funnymoney Habit, a 7-year-old California-bred gelding owned and trained by Paul Wise, became the first horse to win four races this season by capturing last Friday’s eighth race.

On Monday, when Wise took the seventh race with My Best Habit, the Spokane conditioner improved his extraordinary record to 10 winners from only 19 starts.

, DataTimes