For the Reporter

The road to the Longacres Mile begins Sunday, with the $50,000 Governor’s Handicap for 3-year-olds and up at 6½ furlongs.

Fifteen horses are nominated to the Governor’s, the first of four open stakes for older handicap horses and the lone sprint of the four-race series, which includes the $50,000 Budweiser Handicap at one mile, $50,000 Mt. Rainier Handicap at 1 1/16 miles, and the 80th running of the $200,000 Longacres Mile (Grade 3) on Sunday, Aug. 16.

Absolutely Cool — still going strong at age 8 — returns to Emerald Downs following yet another successful campaign at Turf Paradise. The Karl Krieg homebred scored at 13-to-1 in the Phoenix Gold Cup, and now has two wins and two seconds in the last four runnings of the track’s biggest race.

Exit Stage Left, a triple stakes winner at Golden Gate Fields, would be formidable if shipped north for the race. Trained by Hall of Famer Jerry Hollendorfer, the 4-year-old New Jersey bred is 3-2-0 in five career starts with $151,950 in earnings.

Noosito, Del Rio Harbor and Mebossman, last year’s top 3-year-olds at Emerald Downs, are all scheduled to make their first starts vs. older horses in the Governor’s.

Disruption, Scat Daddybaby and Prohibition, who all ran in the 2014 Longacres Mile, are being pointed to the Governor’s, as is four-time stakes winner Mike Man’s Gold.

Defending Longacres Mile champion and 2014 Horse of the Meeting Stryker Phd is expected to make his season debut in the Budweiser Handicap on June 15. The 6-year-old Bertrando gelding is training well for Larry Ross, already logging five workouts, but Ross and owners Jim and Mona Hour plan to use the same schedule as last year when Stryker Phd swept the final three races after skipping the Governor’s.

$50,000 Governor’s Handicap
6½ Furlongs, Sunday,
Horse, owner, trainer

Absolutely Cool (8-WA), Karl C. Krieg III, Tom Wenzel

Del Rio Harbor (4-WA), Desert Rose Racing & Bar C Racing, Marshall Allen

Disruption (5-FLA), Nelson Family Racing, Monique Snowden

Downtown C.T. (6-CAL), Carina Jauregui & Stuart Kesselman, O.J. Jauregui

Exit Stage Left (4-NJ), Mark Dedomenico & Jerry Hollendorfer, Jerry Hollendorfer

Fist Full of Green (6-CAL), Blue Diamond, M Robbins and J & L Kirschman, Roy Lumm

Fleet Eagle (6-KY), Capestro and Oak Knoll Meadows Farm, Inc., Paula Capestro

Mebossman (4-WA), Mark Dedomenico & North American Tbred, Mike Puhich

Mike Man’s Gold (5-WA), Swag Stables & Gallo Stables, David Martinez

Noosito (4-WA), Last Rose Stable, Doris Harwood

Prohibition (5-NY), Mark Dedomenico & North American Tbred, Mike Puhich

Scat Daddybaby (5-KY), Mike & Amy Feuerborn, Robbie Baze

Sportive (7-CAL), Jacqueline Smith, Jacqueline Smith

Trick Or Retreat (4-WA) Mark Malnati & Robert McKay, Doris Harwood

Valiant Flame (5-KY), R.E.V. Racing LLC, Frank Lucarelli