Mountaineer ends 2006 with a bang

Between celebrating all week long -- aren't big families fun? -- I haven't had a chance to evaluate the handicapping books Santa left under my tree. I'll have to wait until after the house guests leave on Sunday before I can even glance at Dan Illman's Betting Maidens and Two-Year-Olds and Lauren Stitch's Pedigree Handicapping. And there's no trip to the track this weekend, which is a shame, because Mountaineer's Saturday card includes some familiar names:

In the 5th, a $27,800 allowance for 2-yo fillies, Spooked, who took third in the Mountaineer Juvenile Fillies Stakes back in August returns to Mountaineer after disappointing runs at Prairie Meadows, Churchill Downs, and Hawthorne. Her stiffest competition looks to be Tin Angel, a Smoke Glacken filly who won her debut in the slop at Hoosier Park.

The 7th is a 6f allowance featuring Speedway, winner of the Mountaineer Juvenile Stakes.
This time out, he faces Out of the Skip, who finished 16 lengths back in the Kentucky Cup Juvenile, but always seems to run well at Mountaineer and B.B. Mancini, who won the Indiana Futurity stakes in November.

The 8th race is the highlight of the card, the 6f New Year's Eve Stakes which offers another opportunity to see She's That Cat, whose once perfect Mountaineer record has dropped to 6 wins in 9 tries on the Mountain. She hasn't run well since being claimed in November, but still her 4 victories were an exciting part of this year at Mountaineer -- it'd be nice to see her end 2006 on a high note.

And, perhaps just to keep things interesting, there's a 2-1/16 mile allowance in the 6th. Yes, two and one sixteenth miles. A slew of veteran geldings try to go the distance in this one; the field includes 6yo Blue Mon, 7yo Pleasant Company and 11yo Sir Dorset. Long may they run.