PRINEVILLE – One of the best horse racing cards in the history of the event is expected to draw a large crowd this evening for the final night of the 2007 Crooked River Roundup Pari-Mutuel Race Meet.

First race post time is 7:15 p.m. at the Crook County Fairgrounds in Prineville.

The 10-race performance includes seven added-money or stakes races, highlighted by the $15,000 Jack Rhoden Memorial / AQHA Challenge Supplemental Series Stakes.

”Our Saturday card will rival any day of racing in Oregon other than for Oregon-bred day or the Portland Meadows Mile day at Portland Meadows,” said Doug Smith, director of racing for the Crooked River Roundup. ”It’s going to be an incredible night of races.”

The Jack Rhoden Memorial / AQHA Challenge Supplemental Series Stakes, for 3-year-old and older quarter horses running 250 yards, offers the largest single race purse in the 32-consecutive-year history of the Crooked River Roundup. The event is sanctioned by the American Quarter Horse Association.

”That race has brought a lot of excitement to Prineville,” said Smith. ”There’s $7,500 and a big payday for the winner. That’s a big race anywhere you go.”

The event came together after a quarter horse trainer approached Smith during last year’s race meet and asked why the Crooked River Roundup offered no big-stakes races for quarter horses. That trainer, said Smith, helped start the ball rolling.

”We sat down and formed a partnership with the Rhoden family and made an offer to the quarter horse group that makes the decisions for races of this caliber,” said Smith. ”It just all fell together.”

A full field of eight is scheduled to go to post in search of the winner’s share of the $15,000 purse. Entries include Hannibal Lector, winner of the $21,200 Autumn Handicap Oct. 15 at Portland Meadows and the $4,400 Quarter Horses Stakes June 24 at Grants Pass Downs; Eyes Okey, who won the $7,150 Director’s Handicap Jan. 7 at Portland Meadows; and Classic Royal Perks, who finished fifth in the $20,160 Fort Dodge Claiming Challenge Stakes April 29 at Sun Downs in Kennewick, Wash.

Another stakes race, the annual Prineville Quarter Horse Futurity, will feature a field of eight 2-year-olds going 250 yards for an estimated $5,700 purse. The field includes Trash In The Air and Lookin For Amillion, who each won qualifying trials on Wednesday night.

Saturday’s racing card also includes:

* The $4,700 Prineville OHBPA Thoroughbred Handicap covering 1/ miles. Entries include Tender Offer, four-time winner of the race, and Dom Fernando, one of the leading money winners during the 2067-07 season at Portland Meadows.

* The 20th annual Art Smith Memorial for thoroughbreds going 7 furlongs for a purse of $4,450. Among the favorites likely will be Zee Chalupa and Gassan Royal, who finished second and third, respectively, in last year’s race.

* The $4,000 Ben Woodward Memorial Handicap for thoroughbreds at 5> furlongs. The five-horse field includes Larron, a 10-year-old with lifetime earnings of nearly $100,000 who has won the race several times in the past.

* The $3,000 Duaine Mizer Memorial for thoroughbreds at 5 furlongs.

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Kurt Holland can be reached at 383-0305 or at kholland@bendbulletin.com.