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Canterbury Invaders Primary Reason To Watch Iowa Tonight

Prairie Meadows in suburban Des Moines, Iowa hosts a pair of $65,000 sprint stakes for 2-year-olds tonight and Canterbury winners will have a strong presence.

Race 7 at Prairie, the Prairie Gold Juvenile, includes Richard Ronald , who will be ridden by Leandro Goncalves. He was aboard the colt June 19 when he crushed a field of four others by 5 ¼ as the odds-on favorite. The son of Misremembered is trained and co-owned by Gary Scherer along with Robert Bernacki. Scherer will not make the trip to Iowa as he has multiple horses running tonight at Canterbury, but that is not an indication Scherer lacks confidence. Richard Ronald sports the highest Beyer Speed Figure in the six-horse field. “I expect the Asmussen horse [Bubba Bling], the one that won at Churchill, is the horse to beat,” Scherer said. Bubba Bling is the 2 to 1 favorite while the Scherer charge is second choice at 7 to 2.

In the filly division, the Prairie Gold Lassie, is Rumpleminx, a California-bred full sister to MN-bred super star Mr. Jagermeister.  Rumpleminx won at first asking July 5 over a muddy track while racing wide. Goncalves rode that night and will again tonight for trainer Valorie Lund.

Lund transported both Rumpleminx and Richard Ronald to Iowa this morning. “They shipped really well and are all put away now,” she said earlier today.

“I feel really, really good about [Rumpleminx],” Lund said. In the Canterbury win Lund insists that the filly did not show everything. “We didn’t use her.”  Rumpleminx was wide around the turn while pressing the pace and then eased away to win by three lengths with Goncalves sitting tight. Her subsequent workout, under cover of darkness July 17, was also better than appears on paper.

“I’m very excited,” Lund said. “This is a wide open race.” The field has scratched down to six with both Asmussen fillies, including the favorite, out. The 8 to 1 morning line assigned to Rumpleminx likely will not prove true once the betting begins.

Post time for the Juvenile is 8:48 p.m with the Lassie 25 minutes later.