The 31st running of the Grade 1, $400,000 Stephen Foster Handicap features the winners of both the 2010 and 2011 Grade 1 Clark Handicap (the fall equivalent of this grade 1 test) in Successful Dan and Wise Dan along with the 2011 Foster runner-up, Mission Impazible. Successful Dan and Wise Dan are half-brothers, born one year apart, who are scheduled to race as a coupled entry because they share common ownership. The two Dans combined have won 16 races from 25 starts and more than $1.6 million and both enter this year’s Foster off winning streaks. Successful Dan’s most recent win was in the Grade 3 Alysheba Stakes and Wise Dan’s coming in the Grade 3 Ben Ali Handicap. Mission Impazible hasn’t won since taking the Grade 3 New Orleans Handicap in March, 2011, but has been second in four graded stakes since, including last year’s Foster and this year’s New Orleans Handicap.

     The contention doesn’t stop with those two quality runners, because Nate’s Mineshaft has won five of his last six including this year’s Grade 2 New Orleans Handicap as well as the Grade 3 Lone Star Park Handicap. Fort Larned finished second to Successful Dan in the Alysheba and just before that won the Grade 3 Skip Away Stakes so is another with the credentials for success. Ron the Greek is another with credentials and recently finished second in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap but before that won the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap. Oaklawn Handicap winner Alternation is on a streak of his own, having just won the Grade 3 Pimlico Special, a race which he beat Nehro by a nose. Nehro, who finished second in the Arkansas Derby and Kentucky Derby last year, was making only his third start off a layoff in the Pimlico Special after being away from the races for eight months so he has room to improve. Rogue Romance won the Grade 3 Bourbon Stakes and finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in 2010 during his two-year-old season then took a long time off, coming back in March after 13 months off and won two of three this year, neither stakes.

     Nate’s Mineshaft earned a whopping 129 Speed Figure, a career best, the only time he ran the Foster distance of one mile and one-eighth, in the New Orleans Handicap in April. Nate’s Mineshaft gets the ground saving rail for the Foster and as a horse who likes to lead from the start, one who appears not to have any competition for the lead in this race, he should be able to control the tempo from the start. With a win in the Mineshaft Handicap before the New Orleans and with a win in his most recent start in the Lone Star Park Handicap, a repeat of that New Orleans effort could be in the offing. If it is, Nate’s Mineshaft can win this year’s Stephen Foster Handicap.

     Wise Dan won the Clark Handicap in November at Churchill Downs at the distance of the Foster by three and three-quarter lengths and earned a career best 117 Speed Figure. Following the Clark, Wise Dan went on the shelf in preparation for his 2012 campaign, which he began with a huge 10 length win in the Ben Ali Handicap, also at the distance of one mile and one-eighth. Having earned a 115 figure in that comeback, it can be assumed Wise Dan is going to run even better in his second race of the year in the Foster and as he’s already proven capable at this level, at this distance and over this surface, he would be no surprise if winning.

     Successful Dan is one year older than Wise Dan and although he’s only earned $596,000 compared to his brothers’ $1 million he is just about as accomplished as he also won the Clark Handicap, back in the fall of 2010. On the sidelines for 16 months with an injury following the Clark, Successful Dan returned to the races in April of this year as if he had never left, winning his comeback race with a 108 Figure then bettering that to a new career best 118 figure taking the Alysheba Stakes at Churchill Downs last month. With improving to do in his third start back from the layoff and proven at this level, distance and over this track like his brother, Successful Dan makes the coupled entry even more formidable in this year’s Foster.

     Nehro has really matured this year at the age of four. Last year he was highly regarded following runner-up efforts in the Louisiana Derby and Arkansas Derby and with his second place effort in the Kentucky Derby there were high hopes for his fall campaign. However, following a fourth place finish in the Belmont Stakes Nehro had a slight injury which forced him to the sidelines until February. Like many in the Foster, Nehro won his first start of 2012 then two races later ran the best race of his career when rallying from eighth of nine to miss by a nose in the Pimlico Special, earning a new career best 119 Figure that he has potential to improve upon and which would enable him to post the slight upset in this race if he does.

     Alternation enters the Foster on a four race winning streak, all in stakes, most recently the Pimlico Special. He also earned a career best Figure, 119, winning the Special, previous to that beating Santa Anita Handicap winner Ron the Greek in the Oaklawn Handicap. Having won two of those four races leading from start to finish and the other two when rallying from off the pace, Alternation has shown the versatility as well as the class to compete at this level and to have a say in the Stephen Foster Handicap this year.

     The rest of the field, with their best representative Speed Figures, is Fort Larned (116), Mission Impazible (121), Ron the Greek (115) and Rogue Romance (105)