Ghost Tree flew home and tagged odds-on favorite Bar Room Gal in the final stride for a neck victory Friday in the featured Central Pet Purse for fillies and mares at Emerald Downs.
Benefitting from a perfectly timed ride by Joe Crispin, Ghost Tree ran 6-½ furlongs in 1:17.02 on a fast track and paid $7, $3.20 and $2.40. Dan Markle is the trainer for owner September House, Connie Roberts, Seattle.
Bar Room Gal, ridden by Leslie Mawing, led virtually the whole race but the final jump and paid $2.60 and $2.10.
Strategic Patience, with Leonel Camacho-Flores riding, finished third and paid $2.40. Roxy Skylar, Akina and Have’n a Wild Time completed the order of finish.
A 5-year-old Washington-bred by Cahill Road-Danza Regio, Ghost Tree has a 4-4-5 record in 31 starts with earnings of $69,392. Friday’s victory snapped a 10-race losing streak that dated to Aug. 15, 2010, but the gray mare had run several good races including a second in last year’s Belle Roberts Handicap.
NOTES: Jockey Juan Gutierrez injured a leg in a starting gate incident prior to the sixth race and his riding status will be updated Saturday. Gutierrez already had two wins on the card and ranks second with 77 wins in the Thoroughbred jockey standings …Quarter horse legend Baxter Andruss saddled his first Emerald Downs winner as L Bar D Snow Princes prevailed by a nose in the 350-yard opener. Andruss, 85, is a perennial Quarter horse training kingpin in Oregon where Portland Meadows even has a stakes race named in his honor. Connie Doll rode the winner in :18.43 seconds…Sartorialist ($11.50) tagged the favored Herescomelucky in the final strides of the $100,000 Jack Diamond Futurity for BC-bred 2-year-olds at Hastings Racecourse. The winner ran 6-½ furlongs in 1:19.09 …In the Sadie Diamond Futurity for BC-bred 2-year-old fillies, Sunnyside Gal ($3.50) scored by 3-¼ lengths in 1:18.15 for 6-½ furlongs…Live racing continues Saturday at Emerald Downs with first post scheduled for 2:15 p.m…Northern Indy, third in the Seattle Slew Handicap last month at Emerald Downs, is 8-to-1 in Saturday’s $300,000 Canadian Derby (G3) at 1-3/8 miles at Northlands Park in Edmonton.
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