{"id":6915,"date":"2011-04-16T19:17:29","date_gmt":"2011-04-17T02:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spiken.wpengine.com\/news\/olympic-lights-shines-in-saturday-feature-at-emerald-downs-horse-racing\/"},"modified":"2016-10-23T10:45:31","modified_gmt":"2016-10-23T17:45:31","slug":"olympic-lights-shines-in-saturday-feature-at-emerald-downs-horse-racing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/sports\/olympic-lights-shines-in-saturday-feature-at-emerald-downs-horse-racing\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympic Lights shines in Saturday feature at Emerald Downs | Horse Racing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><p>Veteran speedster Olympic Lights routed six overmatched opponents  Saturday by 5 \u00bc lengths in the $11,900 American Horse Transportation  Purse for older horses at Emerald Downs.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>With Robert Skelly riding, Olympic Lights ran 5 \u00bd furlongs in  1minute, 2.63 seconds on a wet-fast track and paid $12.20, $6 and $4.  Charles Essex is the trainer and co-owner with Moon Glow Farms and  Dennis Trenkenschuh.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>A 7-year-old Washington-bred by Tropic Lightning, Olympic Lights  thrives at Emerald Downs where he has won nine of 19 starts including  the fastest six furlong clocking of the entire 2008 meeting. Overall,  the gelding is 10-6-1 in 28 starts with earnings of $84,212.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>Rescue Plan, ridden by Matt Hagerty, finished second and paid $12 and  $6.20. Snake Attack, Juan Gutierrez riding, finished third and paid  $4.20.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>Hi and Goodbye, the 3-to-2 betting favorite, encountered a troubled  trip and finished sixth. Immigration was scratched earlier in the day.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>Olympic Lights dueled with Rescue Plan through fractions of :22.29  and :45.10, and then poured it on in the lane to win with complete  authority.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>Skelly, a 40-year-old Irishmen riding at Emerald Downs for the first  time since 2007, had two winners Saturday and said Olympic Lights was a  breeze to pilot.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>\u201cMy mother could have won on him today,\u201d Skelly said. \u201cWhen I asked him at the top of the lane, he exploded.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p><strong>NOTES<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Early 50 cent Pick 4 on 2-2-2-7 paid $5,3777.40 to one winning  ticket. All four winners paid double digits including a $19.40 victory  by Look At Maddie Go in the third race\u2026The track record for a $1 Pick  Four is $18,223.20 set April 17, 2009.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Trainer Bill Tollett, who saddled a winner opening night, had two  more victories Saturday including a 3 \u00be-length triumph by 6-year-old  Grandest Slam ($12.20) in the second race\u2026Juan Gutierrez doubled for the  second straight day and has an early 4-3 lead over both Joe Crispin and  Deborah Hoonan-Trujillo in the jockeys\u2019 standings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Hoonan-Trujillo also rode two winners Saturday\u2026Skelly and Essex  also combined to win the fifth race with Glo Bou Liza ($10.60) \u2026Glo Bou  Liza was claimed for $5,000 by owner John Coonan and trainer Steve  Fisher.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>It was already the seventh claim in the first two days.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Double-digit winners ($2 win price $10 and higher) prevailed in six of the nine races.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Full brothers Avalon Beach and Koala Beach competed in the seventh  and eighth races with first-time starter Avalon Beach ($6.60)  prevailing as the betting favorite in the $16,600 maiden special weight  for 3-year-olds. Koala Beach, the 2009 Gottstein Futurity winner, then  finished fifth after setting the early pace against Olympic Lights in  the feature race. Avalon Beach and Koala Beach are both Washington-breds  by Harbor the Gold-Kittyzallwet.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Gallyn Mitchell, was up for the victory at Emerald Downs and the  48-year-old rider has now won at every meeting in the track\u2019s 16-year  history. Mitchell, of course, ranks first all-time with 1,253 wins at  Emerald Downs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The track\u2019s all-time leading trainer, Tim McCanna, saddled  second-time starter Pokomoko ($8.80) to a victory in the nightcap and  has one win on each of the first two cards of the season. McCanna leads  Frank Lucarelli 772-623 in the all-time standings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Smiley Mylie finished third as the 7-to-10 favorite in the  nightcap and has lost as the betting favorite in six of her nine career  starts. On the plus side, she has earned $9,763 while racking up four  seconds and three thirds\u2026Washington-bred Windy Sails finished second in  the $75,000 Golden Poppy for 3-year-old fillies at Golden Gate Fields.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Racing resumes Sunday with first post at 2 p.m.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Veteran speedster Olympic Lights routed six overmatched opponents Saturday by 5 \u00bc lengths in the $11,900 American Horse Transportation Purse for older horses at Emerald Downs.<\/p>\n<p>With Robert Skelly riding, Olympic Lights ran 5 \u00bd furlongs in 1minute, 2.63 seconds on a wet-fast track and paid $12.20, $6 and $4. Charles Essex is the trainer and co-owner with Moon Glow Farms and Dennis Trenkenschuh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-6915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6915"}],"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=6915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6915\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6915"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=6915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}