{"id":36021,"date":"2018-07-30T07:30:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-30T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/sports\/sippin-fire-prevails-in-a-derby-thriller\/"},"modified":"2018-07-30T08:42:46","modified_gmt":"2018-07-30T15:42:46","slug":"sippin-fire-prevails-in-a-derby-thriller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/sports\/sippin-fire-prevails-in-a-derby-thriller\/","title":{"rendered":"Sippin Fire prevails in a Derby thriller"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sippin Fire wore down Canadian invader Weekend Wizard in a heated stretch battle and scored a three-quarter-length victory Sunday in the $50,000 Muckleshoot Derby for 3-year-olds at Emerald Downs.<\/p>\n

Winning his third straight stakes this season and fourth overall, Sippin Fire ran 1 1\/8 miles in 1:48.54 and paid $4, $2.40 and $2.10. Rocco Bowen rode Sippin Fire at 122 pounds for trainer Steve Bullock and owners David Israel, Joe Withee, Al Adams, Charlie Clark, Angela Wilson and Steve Pilgrim.<\/p>\n

A Washington-bred gelding by Harbor the Gold-Bahati, Sippin Fire earned $26,400 to boost his career mark to $129,088. His overall record is 5-1-0 in eight starts including consecutive wins in the Coca-Cola Stakes, Seattle Slew Stakes and Muckleshoot Derby.<\/p>\n

And with the victory, Sippin Fire remains eligible for a $100,000 bonus to any horse that sweeps the Muckleshoot Derby, $150,000 British Columbia Derby (Sept. 8) and $100,000 Getaway Stakes (Sept. 23).<\/p>\n

Sunday’s victory, however, was far more difficult than his romps in the Coca-Cola and Seattle Slew. Weekend Wizard was the real deal, shaking off a pesky 60-1 Freiburg on the last turn before bravely battling Sippin Fire nearly the length of the stretch.<\/p>\n

“That was two nice horses duking it out down the lane,” Bowen said. “Sippin Fire won it, he’s a great horse, and it’s off to Canada.”<\/p>\n

Sippin Fire was farther back than normal, lagging some eight lengths off the pace as Weekend Wizard led through fractions of :22.79, :46.00, 1:10.35 and 1:35.92. Sippin Fire rallied four wide on the last turn, hooked Weekend Wizard into the stretch, and gradually wore down Weekend Wizard in the final yards.<\/p>\n

Bullock said the hot weather was worrisome, but his chestnut gelding delivered a sensational effort.<\/p>\n

“The champ got awful hot today, and I was concerned,” Bullock said. “But he’s a good horse, and he got the job done against a pretty tough horse.”<\/p>\n

Weekend Wizard, ridden by Julien Couton at 122 lbs, nearly bagged his third stakes win of 2018. A double stakes winner this year in Vancouver, the son of Rosberg would have the home track advantage should he meet Sippin Fire again in the BC Derby in six weeks,<\/p>\n

The 9-5 second choice, Weekend Wizard paid $2.80 and $2.40.<\/p>\n

It was 9¾ lengths back to third place finisher Elliott Bay, ridden by Jennifer Whitaker at 122 pounds, and a $3 show payoff. Argosy Fleet, the other Hastings shipper, finished fourth, followed by Schoenhardt, Check and Raise, Smoothee Lee, Take Charge Deputy and Freiburg.<\/p>\n

Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bowen rode four winners Sunday, extending his lead to 74-50 over Kevin Orozco atop the jockeys’ standings. Bowen also tops the stakes standings with five stakes wins and is now tied with Javier Matias for No. 5 all-time with 30 stakes wins. … Bullock’s new nickname might be Big Bucks Bullock; four of his five wins this season are stakes – three by Sippin Fire and one by Northwest Factor. … Sippin Fire’s winning time was over two seconds faster than Princessof the Nyl’s 1:51.24 in the Washington Oaks last week. … Sippin Fire is one of two 3-year-old nominated to the $200,000 Longacres Mile (Grade 3) on Sunday, Aug. 12. … Jupiter S. ($12.60) prevailed in race eight and Frank Lucarelli moved ahead of Tim McCanna, 931-930, for No. 1 in all-time training wins at Emerald Downs. … Oh Marvelous Me ($3.20) edged Strate Remark in the $21,000 sub-feature for 3-year-olds and up, running one mile in 1:35.11. A 6-year-old Bluegrass Cat gelding, Oh Marvelous Me is 6-3-2 in 12 starts at Emerald Downs for trainer Blaine Wright and owners Todd and Shawn Hansen. … Jockey Anne Sanguinetti connected with Cowglitz Callie for a $48.80 upset in the ninth race finale – Sanguinetti’s seventh win this season at odds of 13-1 or higher. … Heza Dasha Fire – the richest racehorse in Washington history – scored a three-quarter-length victory in Saturday’s $100,000 Spencer L Childers California Breeders’ Challenge at Los Alamitos in Cypress, CA. A 6-year-old Washington-bred Quarter Horse by Walk Thru Fire-Dasha Freda, Heza Dasha Fire is 16-5-0 in 22 career starts with earnings of $2,217,987 for owners Don and Kathy Meneely of Kennewick, WA. … Live racing resumes Friday with first post 6:30 p.m. The 7-race card marks the 85th anniversary of the opening of Longacres on Aug. 3, 1933.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

3-year-old takes third straight stakes this season and fourth overall <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":36024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-36021","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\/36021"}],"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=36021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36021"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=36021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}