Koala Beach Ready for Pepsi-Cola 'Cap

Koala Beach, an outstanding 2-year-old from 2009, makes his return to stakes-company Sunday in the $50,000 Pepsi-Cola Handicap for 3-year-old colts and geldings. The one-mile affair is the first route race for sophomores leading to the $75,000 Emerald Derby on Sunday, Aug. 15.

Koala Beach, who won the 2009 Gottstein Futurity and Dennis Dodge Stakes by a combined 16 lengths, did not start the 2010 meeting the way trainer Doris Harwood and owner/husband Jeff Harwood hoped. The Washington-bred by Harbor the Gold finished last in a four-horse field on April 18, and Doris Harwood said she could tell that Koala Beach was not his normal healthy self.