Bluffs Run, Iowa Greyhound Park's Horseshoe Challenge Won by Barts Navigator

The fifth race on the 2007 Night of Stars program, a series of sixteen nationally simulcasted greyhound races from various tracks across the country, was without a doubt the most meaningful. It was the finals of the $60,000 Horseshoe Challenge from Bluffs Run Greyhound Park in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the only stakes final on the entire Night of Stars card. Some of the proceeds from these star-studded contests go to greyhound adoption, and the Night of Stars is run twice a year; once in May and again six months later in November, with a national audience tuning in and betting on the proceedings. The Horseshoe Challenge had used four rounds of elimination races to pare the field from sixty-four greyhounds to the elite eight, all vying for the $30,000 first place purse. The first five Night of Stars races had gone mostly to form, for the most part, but the Bluffs Run race saw the pre-race favorites never in the mix, and almost saw a colossal upset pulled off by the only girl in the field.

The Horseshoe Challenge was supposed to be the three greyhounds of the second- ranked Bartley Corporation Kennel against the best dog on the grounds, the Bluffs Run wins leader and top earner, Yo My Mediator. The Bartley trinity of Barts Navigator in the one hole, Barts Koda in the three, and Barts Ace High in the four are all owned by Rick Bartley but were each from different litters. Mediator meanwhile, out in the seven, had won sixteen of his twenty-two outings at the Iowa oval, including three elimination rounds, and owned by far the fastest set of winning times of anyone in the race. Driven Toperform was in the two, an all-or-nothing type that figured to not get into the mix here, while a solid threat lurked in the five in the form of JR's Barknbud, victorious in over half of his nineteen 2007 tries. TC's Homer seemed well-spotted in the eight box, while Malibu Wanda, the only dame in the entire field, had the added pressure of having to come out of the worst box in the race, the six.