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AUBURN — Millionaire Alert Bay will try to make a winning comeback as the probable favorite in Sunday’s $200,000 Longacres Mile, the top horse race of the year at Emerald Downs.
Trained by Blaine Wright and owned by Peter Redekop of Vancouver, British Columbia, Alert Bay will attempt to win the race off a 13-month layoff. A 7-year-old California-bred gelding, Alert Bay is 14 for 33 lifetime with earnings of $1,252,555, but has not raced since a third-place finish in the American Stakes on July 4, 2017, at Santa Anita in Aracaida, California.
A field of just six entered the Grade 3 event, which goes as Race 8 at 5:40 p.m. The card also features three other stakes races, including the Emerald Distaff, the top race of the year for fillies and mares.
Alert Bay, the 9-5 choice on the morning line, has Longacres Mile experience, finishing third to Stryker Phd in 2015 and fourth to Point Piper in 2016. He has 10 stakes wins on his resume, including a pair of Grade 2s and four Grade 3s. California-based jockey Juan Hernandez will ride Alert Bay, the starting high-weight at 121 pounds.
Barkley and Mach One Rules are the top local threats after an injury sidelined the speedy Riser, who has dominated the division and would have been a heavy favorite in the Mile. Trained by two-time Longacres Mile-winning trainer Howard Belvoir, Barkley is a five-time stakes winner and finished fourth to Gold Rush Dancer in the 2017 Mile.
“I couldn’t ask for (Barkley) to be coming into the race any better,” Belvoir said. “It all depends how the race shapes up, but he’s very sharp right now.”
Mach One Rules has finished third in all three stakes races for older horses this season.
“(The Longacres Mile) is the one you want the most,” said trainer Frank Lucarelli. “(Mach One Rules) is doing good, and he ran well last year in the race. Riser is out, but there’s still plenty of good horses in the race.”
Kaabraaj, the track and state record-holder at six furlongs, will try to carry his speed around two turns and could be a threat to pull off a surprise in the Mile. Conquest Windycity and Oh Marvelous Me complete the field.
Sunday’s card features 11 races, including a 50-cent pick-4 sequence of all four stakes contests. Post time for the first race is 2 p.m.
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