The rapidly improving Maggie’s Special scored a 2-¼ length victory Sunday in the $11,300 feature race for fillies and mares at Emerald Downs.
Rallying from last place under jockey Javier Matias, Maggie’s Special ran 6-½ furlongs in 1 minute, 15.79 seconds on a fast track and paid $13, $3.80 and $2.80. A 4-year-old by Spiker-Bela Capini, Maggie’s Special is owned and trained by Allen Gideon, who also bred the filly in Washington.
Greenback Forest, the 4-to-5 betting favorite, was easily second best and paid $2.60 and $2.10. It was 6-¾ lengths back to Sky Tribute in third place and a $2.20 show payoff.
Alki Point, the early leader, finished fourth and Makyva Diva finished last. Giacomina, Include the Baby and Cotillion Belle were all scratched.
Maggie’s Special has won two of her last three starts and is 2-2-1 in eight starts overall with earnings of $23,855. She is the only progeny of Spiker, a 7-year-old that still competes at Emerald Downs, and whose 2006 mating with Bela Capini happened by accident.
NOTES: Renton native Joe Steiner notched his first two Emerald Downs victories since 2003 with triumphs aboard Foolish Miss ($6.20) in Sunday’s first race and Shenandoah River in the eighth. Steiner, 47, came out of retirement earlier this year in Southern California…The $0.50 Pick 5 paid $6,636.90 to tickets with five winners, even though Maggie’s Special at $13 was the biggest price in the sequence…Congratulations to trainer Larry Pierce, who was back in the winner’s circle after Wave Rider led gate-to-wire in the finale under Leonel Camacho-Flores…Camacho-Flores had another big day with three wins while Steiner and Juan Gutierrez had two winners each…Leslie Mawing had his streak of consecutive days with at least one snapped at 19, but still finished the week with a 121-90 lead over Gutierrez in the Thoroughbred riders’ standings…Jockey A.L. Gutierrez was excused from his final two mounts with an earache…With six days remaining in the meeting, Frank Lucarelli leads Howard Belvoir 50-48 in the Thoroughbred trainers’ standings…Class Included ($5.60) completed a sweep of the Washington Oaks and British Columbia Oaks with a romping three-length victory under Russell Baze in Sunday’s $100,000-added B.C. Oaks at Hastings Racecourse. Trained by Jim Penney for owner/breeder Mike and Amy Feuerborn, Class Included won by four lengths in 1:50.50 for 1-1/8 miles…Penney almost pulled off a giant day as Emerald Derby winner Jebrica finished second by a neck in the $200,000 B.C. Derby (G3-C) won by betting favorite Northern Causeway ($8.50) and jockey William Antongeorgi. Owned by Roz Barclay and trained by former Emerald Downs mainstay Len Kasmerski, Northern Causeway ran 1-1/8 miles in 1:50.22…Atta Boy Roy raced to a half-length victory as the 9-to-10 favorite in the $35,000 Shot of Gold Stakes at Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minn. Ridden by Rusty Shaw, the 6-year-old Washington-bred ridgling ran six furlongs in 1:11.06 on a fast track for trainer Valorie Lund and owner Roy Schaefer. The win broke a three-race losing streak and improved Atta Boy Roy to 13-for-30 with lifetime earnings of $567,580…Live racing resumes Friday with special first post time at 5 p.m. A fireworks show will follow the races…Washington Cup IX is set for Sunday, Sept. 18.
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