Arctic Sand hopes to repeat his Cradle Prep victory in today's $200,000 Miller Genuine Draft Cradle Stakes on closing day of the River Downs summer thoroughbred racing meet.

        The 25th running of the Cradle is the first major stakes race in the nation for 2-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles.

        Arctic Sand handled the mile-and-70-yard distance of the Cradle Prep very well. The victory enabled Arctic Sand to supplement to the Cradle for $3,000. “He's bred to run run all day,” trainer Phil Marino said.

        Two other colts were also supplemented to the race. Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas entered Overbrook Farm's Day Trader and Patrick Byrne, who conditioned Cincinnati-owned 1997 Horse of the Year and juvenile champion Favorite Trick, will saddle Pass Rush for Michael Tabor of Kentucky Derby winner Thunder Gulch fame. Lukas and Overbrook teamed to win the 1998 Cradle with Mountain Range.

        Day Trader ships in from Belmont Park, where he ran third in the Grade III Tremont Stakes after setting the pace. Prior to that, he won a 5 1/2-furlong sprint by eight lengths. Greta Kuntzweiler will ride.

        Shane Sellers, who won the 1996 Cradle aboard Claiborne Farm's Haint and only recently recovered from major reconstructive knee surgery, will ride Pass Rush for Byrne.

        Pass Rush, an Indiana-bred colt purchase privately by Tabor, scored his maiden victory in his second start at Churchill Downs. He stumbled badly out of the gate in the Gilded Times Stakes at Arlington International but was beaten only a neck as the odds-on favorite. “You had to like the way he tried to overcome that,” Byrne said. “We're happy about the way he is coming along.”

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