In the coming weeks, a four-person committee will convene to decide the various WTBOA champion horses for 2016, with the winning connections honored Saturday, Feb. 25 at the annual awards banquet at Emerald Downs.<\/p>\n
For the most important category – Horse of the Year – it appears to be a race between So Lucky and Stryker Phd.<\/p>\n
So Lucky, a 2-year-old by Coast Guard-Miss Pixie, was a superstar this past season at Emerald Downs. He won his first four starts by a combined 21¾ lengths, including easy victories in the Emerald Express, WTBOA Lads Stakes and Washington Cup, before finishing runner-up in the Gottstein Futurity.<\/p>\n
Trained by Howard Belvoir for Pegasus Too and Rising Star Stable, So Lucky was among four horses to surpass $100,000 in earnings this year at Emerald Downs and ranks among the fastest 2-year-olds in track history.<\/p>\n
Stryker Phd, a 7-year-old by Bertrando-Striking Scholar, is bidding for a third straight Washington Horse of the Year crown for trainer Larry Ross and owners Jim and Mona Hour.<\/p>\n
Stryker Phd’s accolades include an unprecedented third straight victory in the Muckleshoot Tribal Classic, a 5¾-length romp in a quick 1:41.30, and a head victory in last month’s $100,000 Berkeley Handicap (Grade 3) at Golden Gate Fields. The latter was the third graded victory for Stryker Phd and elevated him to No. 4 all-time in Washington earnings.<\/p>\n
So Lucky (2016): 5-4-1-0-$103,835 (three stakes wins)<\/p>\n
Stryker Phd (2016): 5-2-0-1-$101,769 (two stakes wins, including G3)<\/p>\n
Other top Washington-breds of 2016: Invested Prospect (5-4-0-0-$71,875), My Heart Goes On (6-1-1-1-$49,825), Keller’s Gold (8-4-3-0-$45,849), The Press (8-3-2-1-$53,993).<\/p>\n
Heza Dasha Fire misses in Champion of Champions<\/strong><\/p>\n Washington-bred Heza Dasha Fire suffered a heartbreaking defeat by a head in Saturday’s $600,000 Champion of Champions (Grade 1) Saturday at Los Alamitos.<\/p>\n Bidding to become only the fourth two-time winner of the esteemed race, Heza Dasha Fire lugged out in the final yards as Zoomin for Spuds pushed by for a 10-1 upset in 21.30 seconds for 440 yards. The winner, an Idaho-bred 3-year-old that began his career last year at Les Bois Park, earned $300,000 and nearly tripled his career earnings for owner\/breeder Jim Walker of Bellevue, Idaho.<\/p>\n Sent off at odds of 1-to-2, Heza Dasha Fire earned $96,000 for finishing second, boosting his career record to 13-3-0 in 17 starts with earnings of $1,918,737.<\/p>\n Owned and bred by Don, Kathy and Shawn Meneely of Kennewick, Heza Dasha Fire is a 4-year-old by Walk Thru Fire-Dasha Freda. The sorrel gelding is the reigning AQHA World Champion and the richest horse of any breed in Washington history.<\/p>\n Miscellaneous<\/strong><\/p>\n The 2017 Emerald Downs poster schedules – featuring 2016 Horse of the Meeting O B Harbor – already are out. Incidentally, only 51 days until training begins and 117 days until opening day. … Rocco Bowen finished in a seventh place tie with 19 wins at the Golden Gate fall meeting that ended Sunday. … Golden Gate’s winter\/spring meet begins Monday, Dec. 26, the same day Santa Anita opens for its 72-day winter\/spring meet. … Women riders continue to dominate at Portland Meadows, with Kassie Guglielmino leading Eliska Kubionva by a 29-27 margin. … Although Portland Meadows continues through Jan. 4, the Rose City oval staged its biggest day of racing on Sunday, Dec. 4, with a stakes quadruple header for Thoroughbreds. In the $25,000 Portland Mile, Its Allabout Jerry ($4.40) romped by 4 ½ lengths in 1:36.31 and tied his career-high with a 90 Beyer. The 2015 Oregon Horse of the Year is owned by Rancho Viejo and Lisa Baze and trained by Rigoberto Velasquez. … Trainer G D Khalsa and owner Michael Pollowitz had a big day at PM – Parkers Delight ($5.60) capturing the $15,000 Portland Distaff, and Gross Misconduct ($2.40) and Pete’s Slew running one-two in the $10,000 Overnight Handicap for 3-year-olds and up. … With only nine starters at PM, Khalsa is 7-1-0 with a $7.69 ROI. … Nice effort by Washington-bred Mach One Rules to finish third vs. older horses in a $34,000 allowance race Sunday at Golden Gate. Chips All In ($10.80) prevailed in 1:09.84 for Jerry Hollendorfer and George Todaro, and Longacres Mile eighth place finisher Star Student finished second for Fred and Cindy Desimone and Glyn Kelly and Anne MacLennan. Star Student was 2-2-0 in four starts this fall at Golden Gate, including a second in the Oakland Stakes, and recorded Beyers of 96, 88, 90 and 87. … Gallyn Mitchell rode Badasmywifeletsmeb to a $39.60 upset last week at Los Alamitos. It was Mitchell’s first win on the major circuit since beginning his comeback last month. … Mitchell rides Prohibition for trainer Vann Belvoir in a $25,000 claiming race Thursday at Los Alamitos. … Aithon Stable’s Gloria’s Angelo made it two straight wins with a head triumph in a $12,500 starter allowance Friday at Golden Gate. … Yo Y Me, second and third in a pair of maiden special weights at Emerald Downs, is mopping up vs. Arizona-breds at Turf Paradise. The 2-year-old Dixie Chatter gelding soared over $100,000 in earnings with a 7-length victory in Saturday’s $37,000 Arizona Breeders’ Futurity, already his third stakes wins of the meet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So Lucky and Stryker Phd in the chase <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":25325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-25324","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\/25324"}],"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=25324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25324"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=25324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}