For the Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Noosito held off stable mate Del Rio Harbor and scored a hard-fought 1\u00be-length victory Sunday in the $50,000 Seattle Slew Handicap for 3-year-old colts and geldings at Emerald Downs.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Ridden by Leslie Mawing at 120 pounds, Noosito ran 1 1\/16 miles in a stakes-record 1:40.76 and paid $5.80 and $2.60.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Del Rio Harbor, the 3-to-5 betting favorite ridden by Gallyn Mitchell at 122 pounds, ran a strong second and paid $2.20 for place. There was no show wagering.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Doris Harwood*extending her track record to 64 stakes wins*trains both Noosito and Del Rio Harbor, and the sophomores are now tied 3-3 in head-to-head match ups the last two seasons at Emerald Downs.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The rivalry continues Sunday, Aug. 10, with the $65,000 Emerald Downs Derby, a 1 1\/8-mile test that figures to decide the 3-year-old divisional championship.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n A Washington-bred by Harbor the Gold-Julia Rose, Noosito is living up to the hype that comes from being Noosa Beach’s younger brother. Like his older brother, Noosito is versatile, a trait that came in handy in Sunday’s short four-horse field.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Breaking from the No. 2 post-position, Noosito was able to save ground while maintaining a short lead over Del Rio Harbor, who broke from post-position No. 3.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n And that’s the way it would remain, Noosito with a short lead, Del Rio Harbor to his outside, clicking off reasonable fractions of :23.19, :46.06 and 1:09.77. Into the stretch, it was still Noosito with a short lead, and then the real race was on.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n “The plan from the gate was to put him in the race early,” Mawing said of pre-race strategy. “If Del Rio Harbor got the lead easy, we would’ve had to sit off him, but I knew that if I got the lead, he’d have to sit off me.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n “(Gallyn Mitchell and I) slowed the pace down because we didn’t want anyone else to come and surprise us. At the head of the lane, it was mano y mano. I tapped him and he responded. I knew I had a full tank of gas.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Noosito is 4-1-2 in seven lifetime starts, including three stakes wins and earnings of $117,878 for Last Rose Stable.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Noosito’s three starts this year have resulted in two stakes wins sandwiched by a runner-up finish to Del Rio Harbor in the Coca-Cola Handicap. His 2014 earnings are $65,000, including $27,500 for Sunday’s victory.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n A possible silver lining for Del Rio Harbor is that the last six Emerald Downs Derby winners all were beaten in the Seattle Slew Handicap.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Charlie Thomas and Kenai King completed the order of finish.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Dancing Yodeler wins for the club<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n The Emerald Racing Club broke its maiden Sunday when Dancing Yodeler roared through the stretch for a three-quarter-length victory in the 10th race.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Ridden by Mawing, the 6-year-old gelding ran 6\u00bd furlongs in 1:15.16 and paid $11.60 to win. Larry and Sharon Ross train the winner for Emerald Racing Club, 128 fans who each invested $500 and co-own Dancing Yodeler and 5-year-old mare Anelina.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n After his victory, Dancing Yodeler returned to a rousing ovation from ERC members, who packed around the winner’s circle and took keepsake photos of the winner.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n “There’s a lot of pressure when you have over 120 owners to explain to,” Mawing joked afterwards. “I’m just happy to get a win for the owners.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n “It was great for Emerald Downs to get everybody involved. Hopefully, the bug has bitten them and they’ll buy 40 more.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n A California-bred by Swiss Yodeler-Phaenna, Dancing Yodeler now has 11 career victories, the previous 10 were in Northern California where he was claimed in April. Sunday’s victory, which was in a $3,500 claiming race, was worth a $3,410 winner’s check.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Mawing rode three winners and Rocco Bowen and Eliska Kubinova rode two winners each on the 10-race card. Through 14 weeks of racing, Mawing leads Bowen 57-45, followed by defending champion Isaias Enriquez at 35 wins and Kubinova with 32. … Northwest Farms’ debuted another top prospect Sunday, Awesome Indian, a 2-year-old Indian Charlie colt, tied the fastest five furlongs of the meet while winning the $17,850 maiden special weight in :56.81. …\u00a0John & Janene Maryanski’s Rocky’s Quest ($4) turned in a sensational performance to win the $18,900 sub-feature for 3-year-olds and up. Boosting his Emerald Downs’ record to 8-5-4 in 20 starts, the 6-year-old gelding ran one mile in 1:34.91 under Bowen for trainer Blaine Wright. …\u00a0Mr. Top Kat had his three-race win streak ended by Bleu Tarp ($13.60) in race four, the first career second-place finish for Mr. Top Kat, now 9-1-1 in 24 career starts. …\u00a0Jockey Felipe Valdez was given a two-day suspension, Saturday, July 19, and Sunday, July 20, for causing interference while riding Kandra in Saturday’s eighth race. …\u00a0Live racing resumes Friday with first post 6:45 p.m. …\u00a0Del Mar begins its season Thursday with simulcast wagering offered at Emerald Downs.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Noosito held off stable mate Del Rio Harbor and scored a hard-fought 1\u00be-length victory Sunday in the $50,000 Seattle Slew Handicap for 3-year-old colts and geldings at Emerald Downs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":13031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-13030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13030"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13030"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}