Before a capacity crowd last Saturday night in the Emerald Room, the Gallyn Mitchell Fundraiser raised nearly $23,000 as the racing community rallied around the track's all-time leading rider who suffered a heart attack in April.
Jebrica rallied boldly and notched a three-quarter-length victory over Stryker Phd in the $50,000 Budweiser Handicap for 3-year-olds and up Sunday before a packed house on Father’s Day at Emerald Downs.
Defending champion Winning Machine finished third and Why Not Be Perfect was fourth.
Makors Finale and Hoist, co-favored at 5-to-2 in the wagering, weakened to finish fifth and sixth respectively.
Ridden by Isaias Enriquez at 118 pounds, Jebrica ran one mile in 1 minute, 34.72 seconds and paid $23.20, $10.80 and $6.80. Jim Penney is the trainer for owners Ron and Rosalie Warren of Olympia, Wash.
Two of Emerald Downs’ all-time greats, superstar gelding Noosa Beach and jockey Ricky Frazier, will be honored in a joint retirement ceremony at Emerald Downs on July 3.
Clemens Brook continued her hard-hitting ways Friday night at Emerald Downs.
The 6-year-old mare hugged the rail and notched a 1 1/4-length victory in the $12,050 feature race for older fillies and mares. With Eliska Kubinova riding, Clemens Brook ran six furlongs in 1 minute, 9.58-second and paid $8.20, $4.40 and $3. David Tollett is the winning owner and trainer.
El Gran Bebe, who looked beaten in mid-stretch, rallied back for a nose victory over Uzziah in the featured Coca-Cola Purse for 3-year-olds and up Saturday at Emerald Downs.
With David G. Lopez aboard for his third of four wins on the day, El Gran Bebe ran one mile in 1 minute, 35.41 seconds and paid $12.80, $6.80 and $3.60. Robbie Baze is the trainer for owners Michael and Any Feuerborn of Maple Valley.
A 5-year-old Kentucky-bred, El Gran Bebe is three-for-three this season, and joined Roarified as the meet’s only three-time winners. Roarified can retake the lead Sunday with a victory in race eight.
In an age of specialization for high school athletes, JJ Lacey is an anomaly.
The 19-year-old Auburn Mountainview senior and the Auburn Reporter’s Male Athlete of the Year graduates this weekend as the school’s first student-athlete to earn 12 varsity sports letters.
Lacey, who lettered in four different sports during his four-year prep career, considered focusing on his strongest sport, basketball – for which the 6-foot-4 guard was chosen to the All-South Puget Sound League 3A first-team last season.
Former Auburn Mountainview wrestler Lilia Gudzyuk will have an opportunity to make her presence felt on the international stage on June 21.
Gudzyuk, 21, competes in the ASICS Senior U.S. World Team Trials in Stillwater, Okla., for a chance to represent the U.S. at the FILA Women’s Freestyle Wrestling World Championships in September at Budapest, Hungary.
For Gudzyuk, who wrestles at Jamestown College in North Dakota, it’s the culmination of a dream that began when she wrestled as a sophomore at Auburn Mountainview.