$40,000 WTBOA LADS STAKES
SATURDAY, AUGUST 27, 2011
30th RUNNING, 2-YEAR-OLD COLTS & GELDINGS, ONE MILE
Dress Code is finally having his consistency rewarded at Emerald Downs.
The steady 5-year-old caught runaway leader Wowie Maui in deep stretch and scored a 1 ¾ -length victory Friday in the $13,300 feature race for 3 year olds and up.
Brett Allen has been hearing The Question since the end of last football season.
How does the Kent-Meridian High football team replace David Jones?
It’s understandable that fans of South Puget Sound League football would be curious about Allen’s plan. After all, Jones, who is now playing at Portland State University, accounted for nearly 75 percent of the Royals total offense last season after amassing 2,453 yards to go along with 22 rushing touchdowns and nine more scores through the air.
So how does Allen respond to The Question?
Northwest Farms’ Tasya used her early speed Thursday and ran away with a seven-length victory in the featured Ashbaugh Beal Purse for 3-year-old fillies at Emerald Downs.
The 76th running of the Longacres Mile featured an 11 horse field and a dramatic stretch race between 2010 mile champion Noosa Beach and the 2011 winner Awesome Gem.
The pieces are in place on the Kentlake High football field.
An offense that ranked second in the South Puget Sound League North Division by averaging 36.8 points per game a year ago has 10 returning starters.
A defense that ranked third in the North is mostly intact and returns eight starters.
And there isn’t a team in the North that returns more all-league selections (8) than the Falcons.
Add it up and expectations are sky high for the Falcons, who will soar into their season opener Thursday, Sept. 1 at French Field against Auburn Riverside as the unquestionable team to beat in the vaunted SPSL North.
Awesome Gem ran out of the 11 post and to run down fan favorite Noosa Beach to win the Longacres Mile, Grade 3.
Single-game tickets are now on sale for Seattle Thunderbirds 2011-12 season at the ShoWare Center in Kent.
Sean McMullen, of Kent, and Broc Johnson, of Federal Way, tied for second place at 142. McMullen, a Kentridge High School graduate, and Johnson, a Todd Beamer High School graduate, also tied for second at the 2010 Class 4A state high school championship tournament.
Some athletes wilt under pressure. Others rise to the occasion.
Kent's Marley Prothero and Kevin Munsch live for the situations when the stakes are just a bit higher.
That was evident during the 2011 ConocoPhillips USA Swimming National Championships, which took place Aug. 2-6 at Stanford University's Avery Aquatic Center in Palo Alto, Calif.
Prothero, a 2008 Kentwood High graduate, and Munsch, a Kent resident and a 2008 graduate of Kennedy High in Burien, delivered some of their finest performances to date in what could be considered the biggest event of their lives.
76th RUNNING, 3-YEAR-OLDS & UP, ONE MILE
Track & Stakes Record: 1:33, Sky Jack (7), 123 lbs, Aug. 24, 2003
Most Wins
16th RUNNING, FILLIES & MARES, 1-1/8 MILE
Late Affair opened a big lead early and held off Daymaker late for a head victory Saturday in the $21,000 Pepsi Purse for older fillies and mares at Emerald Downs.
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.
All eyes will be on defending champion Noosa Beach Sunday as he attempts to win the $200,000 Longacres Mile, Grade 3, and become the third back-to-back winner in the race's 76-year history. Noosa Beach, however, isn't the only Mile winner looking for a repeat.
Winning the Longacres Mile is a tall order.
That is the feat facing a tall horse, Noosa Beach.
The dark brown gelding is training to become only the third horse in 76 years to win the Longacres Mile, Grade 3, back-to-back.
The 5-year-old Washington-bred son of Harbor The Gold won the 2010 mile. Noosa Beach has strung together seven consecutive winner’s circle photos beginning with the 2010 Mt. Rainier Handicap and most recently capturing the 2011 edition of the $50,000 Mt. Rainier Handicap July 24.
The next stop for the long striding thoroughbred will be a spot in the starting gate Aug. 21 in the $200,000 Longacres Mile. Trainer Doris Harwood expects the competition to be intense, but believes her horse is ready to repeat.
The track’s all-time leader in victories will reach another milestone Saturday as West Seattle Boy makes his 100th lifetime start in the fifth race at Emerald Downs.
California shippers Awesome Gem and Slew the Man arrived safely at Emerald Downs early Wednesday morning in advance of Sunday's $200,000 Longacres Mile, Grade 3.
Fans can watch the Seattle Thunderbirds in action during four Rookie Camp scrimmages Thursday, Aug. 25 and Friday, Aug. 26 at the ShoWare Center in Kent.
Just before entries were drawn Wednesday morning for the 76th running of the $200,000 Longacres Mile, veteran Seattle Times handicapper Gary Dougherty calculated the odds were 131-to-1 that probable favorites Noosa Beach and Awesome Gem would draw post-positions 11 and 12 for Sunday’s Grade 3 race.
