Emerald Downs | Horse Racing Free Tips

Emerald Downs: Wednesday Card Features $31,361 Carryover In $0.50 Pick 5

Week two of the 2020 season at Emerald Downs in Auburn, Wash. begins Wednesday with a 10-race program at 2:15 p.m., and continues Thursday with a nine-race card at 5 p.m. Wednesday has added intrigue with a $31,361 carryover in the $0.50 Pick 5 on races 6 through 10.

For handicappers, opening week proved challenging with favorites clicking in just four of 20 races for a lowly 20 percent strike rate. Eleven winners reached double digits including bombers Constant Craving ($49.40), Benny the Jet ($45), Cate's Gold ($40) and Ri' Pin Snap ($35.40).

A certain amount of wackiness is to be expected. Most of the horses that ran last week had not seen racing action since 2019, and the ones that had raced had been off for several weeks. Handicapping is tricky without current form to evaluate, but also lucrative!

$0.50 Pick 5 Synopsis:

Race 6 (4:55 PDT), $8,000 claiming, F&M NW3L, 5 ½ furlongs: Trainer Jorge Rosales won at a 27 percent clip here in 2019 (28 for 105) including a 10 for 35 mark with owner Marjorie Avery. Here they team with Coilette, a fast California-bred who beat older fillies and mares last fall in a $16,000 NW2L at Del Mar. Anything close gets the job done here. Emma's a Beast had a productive spring on the Tapeta at Golden Gate but this is her debut vs. older horses, while Sadie Sue returns to dirt for top trainer Blaine Wright.

Race 7, $18,000 MSW, 3-year-olds and up, 5 ½ furlongs: The three Chris Stenslie/Jody Peetz runners are all full brothers to Emerald Downs Horse of the Meetings! Spittin Image (Harbor the Gold-Flying Memo) is the younger brother of O B Harbor, Harbors Rule (Harbor the Gold-Felice the Cat) is younger brother of Mach One Rules and Brothers (Harbor the Gold-Bahati) is kin to Sippin Fire. The Stenslie trainees are 6-1, 6-1 and 7-2 on the morning line. This race is difficult. Morning line favorite Time 'n Time Again has lost 13 times but has earned over $43,000 and came within a head of crossing the wire first in the 2018 Gottstein Futurity.

Race 8, $15,000 claiming, 3-year-olds and up NW3L, 5 ½ furlongs: After smashing the single season record last year with 81 wins, trainer Frank Lucarelli is off and running again in 2020, bagging three wins, three seconds and two thirds from 11 starts last week. Luke has 'em surrounded in this one with morning line favorites Golden Cowboy (6-5) and Irish Terrier (7-2). Although winless in 11 tries last year, Cowboy earned decent figures while banging heads with sharp older sprinters such as Cross Creek, So Lucky and Freiburg, and his tactical speed is an asset in a field without a confirmed front runner. Incidentally, there were 12 races last week at 5 ½ furlongs, and six were won gate to wire, one was taken by a stalker, and five were won by come from behinders.

Race 9, $18,500 ALW, F&M NW2L or WA-BRED NW3L, 5 ½ furlongs: Last year's state and track champion juvenile filly Windy Point makes her 2020 debut in this evenly matched sprint. Windy was 2-2-0 in five starts as a juvenile including a dominant victory in the Washington Cup; the lone misfire was against males from the 12-post in the two-turn Gottstein Futurity. She looks ready to fire after a steady stream of works for underrated trainer Jose Navarro, and her versatile style is helped by an outside post. There are four 4-year-olds in the race including a pair from the Kay Cooper barn. Magical Spell finished a great second to state champion sophomore filly Alittlelesstalk in the Washington Cup at a mile while Suddenly Awesome banged heads with the likes of Killarney Lass, Alittlelesstalk and No Talking Back.

Race 10, $8,000 maiden claiming, F&M, 6 furlongs: A combination of a decent recent race at Golden Gate and jockey Gary Wales makes Stand in Your Love formidable in the nightcap. Whata Flirt makes her Emerald Downs debut for trainer Sharon Ross and the Emerald Racing Club, but the 5-year-old mare has 12 runner-up finishes without a victory on her resume. Perhaps a return to dirt does the trick? I C Fire is another with a fair recent race in the Bay Area, and the barn clicked at a big price with its lone starter last week.

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Jockey Juan Gutierrez Bags Four Winners On Opening Day Card At Emerald Downs

Juan Gutierrez was in mid-season form as Emerald Downs launched its 25th season of live racing Wednesday.

Taking aim at Gallyn Mitchell's all-time track record for most wins, Gutierrez rode four winners on the 10-race card capped by a five-length victory on a razor-sharp Makah Lane in the featured $13,600 Muckleshoot Casino Purse for 3-year-olds and up.

Gutierrez, 50, is a 2018 Washington Racing Hall of Fame inductee and appears poised to notch another major milestone in 2020. With four victories Wednesday, Gutierrez boosted his Emerald Downs' win total to 1,377, and is just 42 wins away from Mitchell's mark of 1,419.

Gutierrez scored a natural hat trick with wins aboard Vroysky ($7.20), Benny the Jet ($45) and Freestone ($4.80) in races two, three and four, and finished off the four-bagger aboard Makah Lane ($7.60) in the ninth.

Winner of last year's Washington Cup Sophomore Stakes, Makah Lane tipped his hand as an up and comer in the older horse ranks. Stalking This Great Nation and Wine At Nine through fractions of :22 1/5 and :45.08, Makah Lane advanced three deep into the stretch, powered to the lead a furlong from the wire and won with total authority.

A four-year-old Washington-bred gelding by Atta Boy Roy, Makah Lane has won three of his last five starts and boasts an overall mark of 3-1-0 in seven starts with earnings of $51,143. Bonnie Jenne is trainer and co-owner with husband Wally Jenne and Doug and Nancy McPhee.

Mutuel handle on the 10-race card totaled $1,636,000.

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Live Racing At Emerald Downs Resumes Wednesday; Superfecta Takeout Reduced To 15 Percent

Live racing returns as Emerald Downs in Auburn, Wash. begins its 25th season with a 10-race program on Wednesday, June 24. First post is 2:15 p.m.

Racing will be conducted with no fans or spectators at this time.

Eighty-six horses are entered on opening day (8.6 per race) and will perform under ideal weather conditions. The forecast calls for sunshine and a high of 77 degrees.

Wednesday's opener also marks the region's first live sporting event in the state of Washington since the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown in March. Spectators will not be allowed on-track, but wagering is available via various advance deposit wagering (ADW) companies.

“It's exciting to get going,” said Emerald Downs' President Phil Ziegler. “It certainly isn't the opening day we were planning for, but it will be special in its own way as it marks the return of pro sports in Washington.”

The updated schedule calls for a 44-day season through Sunday, October 4, with racing every Wednesday and Thursday (5 p.m.)

Emerald Downs also has announced an industry low 15% takeout on all superfecta wagers with a minimum bet of 10 cents.

A revised stakes schedule includes 16 stakes worth an aggregate $720,000, tentatively beginning with the $40,000 Angie C Stakes and $40,000 King County Express on Aug. 2. The 85th renewal of the $100,000 Longacres Mile (G3) is tentatively set for Sept. 13.

In the jockey colony, defending riding champion Gary Wales has nine mounts opening day. A 34-year-old Scotsman, Wales rode 99 winners last year while finishing 33 wins clear of runner-up Kevin Orozco. A top newcomer is Alex Cruz, a 27-year-old native of Puerto Rico who was the leading rider with 77 wins this winter at Turf Paradise. Juan Gutierrez, begins the season needing 46 wins to tie Gallyn Mitchell's all-time Emerald Downs' record of 1,419 wins.

On the trainers' side, Frank Lucarelli comes off a remarkable season in which he shattered the single-season mark with 81 wins. Lucarelli has finished first or second in 16 of the last 20 seasons and ranks No. 1 all-time in Emerald Downs wins (1,025) and earnings ($11,164,219). Blaine Wright, the leading stakes trainer each of the last four years, also returns in 2020, along with Washington Hall of Fame trainers Howard Belvoir, Doris Harwood, Sharon Ross and Tim McCanna. Belvoir and Lucarelli are both busy opening day, with seven and six horses entered respectively.

The opening day feature is a $13,600 allowance/optional claimer for 3-year-olds and up at six furlongs. The 11-horse field includes Wine At Nine, an 8-year-old gelding with 17 career Emerald Downs' wins, along with local stakes winners This Great Nation, Makah Lane and Muncey.

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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Horses Helped Heal Jockey Rocco Bowen

Rocco Bowen has always known how to work hard and achieve his goals. The Barbados-born jockey made his way to the United States and found a second home at Emerald Downs in Washington State. There, he was the leading rider at in 2016 and 2017, the first jockey to record back-to-back 100-win seasons at the track.

Bowen was en route to a third consecutive riding title in 2018 when his whole world changed in an instant.

The morning of Sept. 8 dawned like any other, with Bowen at the track before the sun and readying to breeze over a dozen horses. On this morning, however, his inside rein broke on a horse he was riding and he went down hard.

Unconscious for 25 minutes, Bowen finally came to inside the ambulance on the way to the hospital. He didn't know where he was or what had happened, but as soon as he figured out what day it was the jockey wanted to go back to the track for the afternoon's races.

Doctors told him that wasn't an option with his separated shoulder and serious concussion, but Bowen was determined. At the time of the accident, he was sitting at 97 wins and wanted to set the record with three straight 100-win seasons at Emerald.

After just one week out of the saddle, Bowen returned to win 12 more races and the title.

“I knew I had to take care of my body and get my hand fixed,” Bowen said. “My left hand wasn't working right. I may be right-handed, but I learned to be left-hand dominant in the saddle from Garret Gomez. I just kept horses in the clear and did the best I could to finish the season.”

Looking back at the time immediately following the injury, Bowen laughed and quipped: “You know, jockeys are notoriously stubborn and hard-headed. I'm no different. If our limbs don't have to be reattached, we get back on the horse.”

It was the long-term aftermath that began to break down Bowen's steely resolve. Doctors couldn't seem to find anything wrong with him, but he had persistent numbness in his left hand as well as occasional shooting pains from his neck all the way down his arm.

The injury dragged out for over a year, and Bowen just couldn't seem to find a solution. He'd be fine one day, then the next he'd drop a glass of apple juice on the floor. He was close to giving up by early 2020.

“It got me in a really bad place, and I was willing to give up everything and go back to Barbados,” Bowen said. “My weight went up to 152, but I didn't really care because the doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. They wanted to send me back for light duty, but what am I supposed to do, wash buckets?

“I had people pulling me in a hundred different directions. Should I retire and take the insurance money, or try to come back, but where and how? I was lost.”

A telephone conversation with his mother, Nancy Bowen, who still lives in Barbados, finally began to put things in perspective.

“Mom said if I'm really not done, I need to get up and go do it,” Bowen said. “I tried to listen to doctors, but it wasn't working.

“I didn't know where to start to get back up. My brother reached out to jockey Rico Walcott, and we started by getting my weight down. Then I had to work on my confidence, but I just didn't feel like I was done riding.”

It was another conversation, this time with Kyle Watson, his brother not by blood but by choice, that really kicked Bowen into high gear to make his way back to the track.

“We were raised together – he's my brother from another mother,” Bowen joked, explaining that Watson lives in Barbados with Bowen's mother. “Through my comeback, we got even closer. He's my greatest critic, and we handicap together … he helps keep me in line from thousands of miles away. He told me, 'Roc, this is your time to shine.'”

On April 1, Bowen weighed in at 152 lbs. By May 22, he was down to 122 lbs. He was riding in the mornings everywhere he could and kept going by trainer Genaro Garcia's barn at Indiana Grand because his brother had noticed the trainer's success rate. On the ninth morning, Garcia finally let him work a horse, and the two hit it off.

His hand kept getting better and better; it was like the horses were healing him.

Bowen rode his first race back on June 4 at Belterra Park, after 640 days away from the races. He finished second aboard Dingdingdingding. On June 5, he won a $7,500 claimer aboard Hyndford, trained by Garcia.

“Once I rode that race, and the hand didn't go numb or anything, and I said I'm not back, but I'm coming,” said Bowen. “Genaro told me, 'I believe in you, I have the world of confidence in you,' and that was big for me.”

Bowen's entire family back home in Barbados was excited to watch him on television on June 11, when he got his first mount at Churchill Downs. He won the race by a nose.

“I called Mom and told her I got my first call, and all my family gathered at my grandma's big house to watch the race,” Bowen said. “I still can't believe I won my first ever race at Churchill. I cried from the winner's circle all the way back to the jock's room. … My agent, Mr. John Herbstreit, he put me on the map after 640 days!”

Bowen has now won six races since his comeback, and he is working hard to keep up the momentum.

“I love the Midwest, it's home for me right now,” said Bowen. “The feeling in my hand is all back, and it's like nothing but positive energy right now. I went from three weeks ago, my legs were at maybe 20 percent, and now they're up to 70 percent strength.”

In the short-term, Bowen wants to finish in the top three of the standings at Indiana Grand. Long-term, Bowen can see himself buying a house in the Midwest and trying to get a mount in either a Triple Crown or Breeders' Cup race by 2023.

“I'm just trying to be humble and keep moving forward,” Bowen said. “Hopefully I can take my career to next level. All these guys in Indiana are treating me like they've known me a long time, especially Joe Talamo. He's my brother's idol, he doesn't ride but he loves jockeys. Talamo was happy to sign a picture for him, and he got to meet Talamo via FaceTime from the jock's room. … This year, I want to surprise Kyle with a plane ticket to watch me in a big race: 'Here bro, get your suit ready and we're going to the big time.'”

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