A Lot at Stake for Wando

Today at Woodbine Racetrack, near Toronto, Wando will try to do what Funny Cide couldn’t two months ago at Belmont Park.

Owned and bred by Bruno Schickendanz and trained by Mike Keogh, Wando will try to become the seventh horse to win the Canadian Triple Crown in the $500,000 Breeders’ Stakes at 1 1/2 miles.

A winner of the first two legs -- the Queen’s Plate and the Prince of Wales -- on the dirt, Wando will move to the turf, a surface over which he has never won. He was second to Lismore Knight in his only turf race in the Summer Stakes last September.

If Wando, who will have seven opponents and be ridden by Patrick Husbands, is successful, he will become the first horse to win the Canadian Triple Crown since Peteski in 1993.

Scatter The Gold, the last horse with to have a chance at the Triple Crown in 2000, finished third in the Breeders’ Stakes.

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Trainer Bob Baffert said Congaree seems unlikely to run in the $1-million Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 24. Baffert has said he doesn’t want to do anything that might affect the horse’s status for the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Oct. 25.

Kudos, Candy Ride, Eye Of The Tiger, Milwaukee Brew and Peace Rules are all possible for the Pacific Classic.

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Denon, who missed by a head in the $500,000 Sword Dancer Invitational Handicap, will take another shot at the Grade 1 today at Saratoga.

The field for the 1 1/2-mile turf race was also supposed to include two-time defending champion With Anticipation, but the 8-year-old gelding came up with an injury on Friday and could be sidelined for the rest of 2003.

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Making his first start since he finished fourth in the Belmont Stakes, Dynever is likely to be favored against 10 other 3-year-olds in the $600,000 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer Race Track in Chester, W.Va.