8/17/2024
(Auburn, WA) Saturday had 7 races going with another good day for the bettors. Only 2 favorites won leaving severeal chances to cash in with some big hits on Saturday. The feature race would be if anyone could catch Gunnin’ For Gold and the Pick 5 paid off good again.
The promotions department was cranked up again with the annual World Championship T-Rex races with several age categories you can see the video compilation put together by the Emerald TV department at the bottom of this story.
Also, the Eli Sports Network has added a translation button in the upper right corner. With one click of a button the entire Eli Sports Network can be translated into Spanish, German, French, Italian, Japanese or Chinese.
Just go to the upper right corner and find this button.
Then click on the language you want and bam, you can read it in that language!
Let’s get to Saturday’s Races!
6th Race Feature Race
The feature race on Saturday was a field of 6 going 6 furlongs and the question was could any of the other 5 runners put enough pressure on the speedy Gunnin For Gold to be able to run him down in the stretch? The public thought so letting Gold go off at 5-1 as the 3rd choice and the 2nd answer was no, they could not and did not as Alex Cruz broke the chestnut gelding alertly from the 1 hole took command and it was over.
Cruz and Gold set all the fractions of 22.07 and 44.23 while building a 4 length lead heading into the stretch. He had similar leads in his last 2 races but faded to 2nd and 3rd. That would not be the case on Saturday as he blew out the competition by nearly 6 lengths in a sizzling final time of 1:08.34 just off the fastest 6 furlongs of the meet of 1:07.98.
5-2 El Bromista and Karlo Lopez were a clear 2nd with odds-on favorite It’s Turbo and Isaias Enriquez taking 3rcd with 13-1 A Skip in the Park and Jose Zunino comopleting the superfecta.
Gunnin’ For Gold gave owners Lusk Racing their 2nd straight feature race win. They won a shared ownership with Alexis Silva-Martinez on Friday night with Lady Cruiser. Gunnin For Gold is trained by Vince Gibson and he’s a Washington bred by Harbor the Gold out of Clever Bird by Awesome Again and was bred by Bret Christopherson.
Gunnin For Gold picked up the $13,965 winners share of the allowance purse and pushes his lifetime earnings to $30,876 with a career record of 2-1-1 from 8 lifetime starts. Gunnin For Gold paid $12.48, $6.96 and $3.22.
Link to Equibase Chart with full Pay-offs
Feature Race Replay
The rest of Saturday’s Card
1st Race
A field of 6 went 6 1/2 furlongs and a well timed ride from Luis Reyes on 7-5 favorite Dennard handed him an easy 3 length win with a nice stretch run in a final time of 1:16.86. 7-1 Tribal Impact and Karlo Lopez were 2nd followed by 10-1 Hadlees Honor and Manuel Amricano and taking 4th was Cajun Treasure with David Martin. Dennard races for Miguel H Racing and is trained by Miguel Hernandez and paid $4.76 on the $2 win.
Link to Equibase Chart with full Pay-offs
2nd Race
6 broke from the gsate under the supervision of starter Mark Gibson and Khaiky’s Command at 6-1 pulled the mild upset with a nice stalking trip run. Alex Cruz waited to make their move inside the 1/8th pole and pulled clear by nearly a length for the win in a time of 1:10.30. Cruz got his 1st win of the day but also got the 1st win of the meet for Jaymie Pearman Cruz as both an owner and trainer. Oh yah, they kept the money in the family for the married winning team. 5-2 New Every Morning was 2nd with Luis Reyes, 3rd went to favorite Clayton Delaney and 4th was Rhodium Runner and Karlo Lopez at 5-1. The 1st $1 daily double of the day paid $17.03.
Link to Equibase Chart with full Pay-offs
Khaiky’s Command win for team Cruz
3rd Race
What a race this 6 furlong dash turned into as all 6 were within a length of winning this at the wire. The race was a preview to the 3 quarterhorse races set to be run on Sunday. 5-1 Spinnin Pistols with Keving Krigger emerged victorious over his stablemate 4-1 Bluegrass Go Go with Luis Reyes by a neck in a final time of 1:09.84. Trainer Blaine Wright pulled off the exacta finish and in a winning time of 1:09.84. Tracy and Paula Heline were the winning owners. Bluegrass Go Go was just a head in front of 3rd place Poverty Bay and Alex Cruz at 6-1 who was just a 1/2 length in front of 4th place Son of Thunder and Carlos Montalvo at 3-1 who was a neck in front of 5th place Table Bay who was a nose in front of Our Boy Roy. The 50-cent trifecta paid a nice $109.95 and the 1st 50-cent pick 3 was good for $61.12.
Link to Equibase Chart with full Pay-offs
6 Horse Blanket Finish
4th Race
The field of fillies and mares went 6 1/2 furlongs and Frisco Frills got back to business after a pair of dull efforts as Allyssa Morales got after Frisco from the start and quickly built a 2 1/2 length advantage setting fractions of 22.64 and 44.83. Morales kept after Frisco Frills and led by 4 at the top of the stretch and expanded to a more than 5 length easy win in a final time of 1:15.62. Frisco Frills races for Vanessa Arballo and gave trainer Miguel Hernandez his 2nd win of the day. Frisco Frills is a Washington bred by Coast Guard out of Tango Twist by Kentucky Lucky and was bred by Cliff and Leslie Balcom. 9-2 Ms Flashy Harbor and Kevin Krigger ran 2nd, 7-2 Charmant E and Kiaman McGregor were 3rd and 2-1 Zippen Sevenz and Alex Cruz ran 4th. Frisco Frills was the slight 2-1 favorite and paid $6.76 to win and the 1st 50-cent pick 4 returned $314.64.
Link to Equibase Chart with full Pay-offs
5th Race
5-year-old Executive Chef and Juan Gutierrez just keep on winning and did it again for the 3rd time in 4 starts this season with the other start a 2nd place finish by a 1/2 length. Gutierrez laid just off the paced and took control halfway down the stretch and looked like an easy winner but late closer Jin Tong was rolling at 10-1 on the outside with Carlos Montalvo who just ran out of time losing by a neck to now the 3 time winner Exec Chef in a final time of a quick 1:15.26. 7-5 favorite Prisoner and Kevin Krigger were another 1/2 length back in 3rd in a good effort with 25-1 You’re the Cause and Javier Matias in 4th. Executive Chef gave trainer Blaine Wright his 2nd win of the day and owners John and Janene Maryanski and Gerald and Gail Schneider got their 7th win of the season tying them for 3rd with John Parker. Executive Chef capped off a $746.48 pick-4.
Link to Equibase Chart with full Pay-offs
Executive Chef holds off Jin Tong
7th Race
The field of 7 in the finale did not pull any surprises with the 2nd favorite Bumping River at 5-2 with Leslie Mawing aboard got the job done with a nice front running effort winning by 2 1/2 lengths. 2-1 2nd choice Coastal Girl and Kevin Krigger stalked but could not close the gap to settle for the place, 5-2 Galesville and Alex Cruz just got up for 3rd by a neck over 12-1 Treasure the Time and Allyssa Morales who nosed out 10-1 Sheza High Climber and Karlo Lopez who completed the 50-cent Super Hi 5 which was hit and paid $184.51. Bumping River is owned by Clemans View Farm and trained by Jose Navarro. Bumping River is a Washington bred by Abraaj out of Goose Prairie by Nationhood and was bred by Clemans View Farm.
Link to Equibase Chart with full Pay-offs
News and Notes
Doubling Up
Alex Cruz had 2 wins on Saturday and extends his lead over 2nd place Kevin Krigger to 17 with his 41st and 42nd wins of the season. Cruz won the 2nd race for his wife Jaymie Pearman Cruz for her 1st win of the season on 6-1 Khaiky’s Command and scored an impressive front running blitz in the feature race on Gunnin’ For Gold to win by nearly 6 lengths at 5-1. Cruz is shooting for an unprecedented 5th straight riding title in Washington State racing history.
Owners Lusk Racing
Lusk Racing was standing in the Winner’s Circle again on Saturday winning the feature race for the 2nd straight day. Lusk Racing shared the owner’s win with Alexis Silva-Martinez who also trained Lady Cruiser on Friday night. But on Saturday it’s just the Lusk Racing team as sole owner of Gunnin’ for Gold and Vince Gibson handles the training duties for Gold.
Trainer Miguel Hernandez
Miguel Hernandez continues to have a big year in his 1st season at Emerald Downs winnig twice on Saturday with Dennard in the 1st and Frisco Frills in the 4th. Hernandez recorded his 15th and 16th wins of the season. Hernandez is currently 4th in wins in the trainer standings.
Another Trainer Exacta plus 2 wins from 500
Friday night Frank Lucarelli ran 1-2 in the 5th race and now Blaine Wright repeated that feat on Saturday in the 3rd race with 5-1 Spinnin Pistols winning and 4-1 Bluegrass Go Go running 2nd. The 2-6 $1 exacta ticket paid $23.05. Lucarelli’s paid double that at $47.05, but still a decent return of 22-1 for the $1 bet. This was Wright’s 29th win of the season and he remains solidly in 2nd 17 wins behind the leader Justin Evans.
Wright is also closing in on a personal benchmark now with 498 wins at Emerald Downs needs just 2 more to hit the 500 mark which would make him the 6th trainer in Emerald history to get to the 500 win level.
The Betting Window
Double digit $2 wins were again the rule and not the exception. On Friday 5 of the 7 races paid $10 or more with the high pay of 9-1. On Saturday there were 4 races of more than $10 wth the high pay coming in the 2nd race of 6-1. 2 betting favorites won on Saturday for a total of just 3 favorites winning for the week so far and no odds-on choices.
For the 2nd straight day the 50-cent pick 5 has paid off with a big figure. Saturday’s pick 5 of a 5-1, 2-1, 5-1, 5-1 and 5-2 paid $2,991.77. On Friday the pay-off was $7,239.99. So far this week the pick 5 has returned $10,231.76. The top 50-cent pick 4 paid $746.48 in the 5th race paying off the 2nd-5th race 2nd pick 4 of the day. The 50-cent pick 6 was not hit and a carry-over of $1,342 is set for Sunday.
Claims
This was the slowest claim day maybe of the season and was likely due to only 1 claiming race with a price under $15,000. There were 2 of 7 races that were not claiming races, one $40,000 claiming tag, 2 at $25,000 and a $15,000. The only claim came in the 1st race for 5k.
1st Race
Dennard was claimed by new owner Christi Betz and goes to trainer Robbie Baze for $5,000.
T-Rex Championships
Saturday was the World Championship T-Rex races at Emerald Downs. Competitors dressed in a T-Rex costume competed in several age categories. The Emerald television crew led by Executive Producer Cy Labar put together this fun video of the races run on Saturday.
www.elisportsnetwork.com
