Zach & Beth Correa’s Madame Pele rallied from slightly off the pace and scored a convincing 3 ½-length victory in the $50,000 Comcast SportsNet Stakes for Washington-bred 3-year-old fillies.
Ridden by Juan Gutierrez at 118 lbs – his second WA Cup winner on the card – Madame Pele ran one mile in 1 minue, 35.69 seconds and paid $6, $3.80 and $2.80. Jim Penney is the trainer.
A Washington-bred 3-year-old filly by Salt Lake-Striking Scholar, Madame Pele is a half-sister to Muckleshoot Tribal Classic winner Stryker Phd. She has a 2-3-3 record in 10 starts overall, and earned $25,000 to push her bankroll to $70,167,
Madame Pele was runner-up top Roveing Patrol in the 2012 Northwest Farms Stakes and spent this summer in Northern California, winning a maiden special weight at Pleasanton in July.
“She went down to California and came back today to the Washington Cup ready to win,” Gutierrez said. “She was pulling me on the outside, and I told myself not to choke her, but save her for the last stretch. She did the rest.”
Say Say, a 7-to-1 shot ridden by Sutherland-Kruse, was easily second best and paid $6.80 and $5.60. The runner-up effort gave Chantal a 1-1-0 mark in two mounts in her visit to Emerald Downs.
Holy Dazzle was 5 1/2 lengths back in third and paid $6.20, and 7-to-5 favorite Beautranda finished fourth.
NOTES: Metz saddled three winners on the 10-race card and leapfrogged past two-time defending champion Frank Lucarelli into a 38-37 lead atop the trainers’ standings… Sanguinetti rode all three Metz winners and is 25-for-129 this season riding for Metz. All three wins were route races and Sanguinetti is clicking at a 32.5 win percentage in two-turn races… Gutierrez and Enriquez each rode two winners, and defending champion Gutierrez leads Enriquez 93-90 in the jockeys’ race with nine days left in the meeting… Gutierrez’ wins were both WA Cup events, Comcast SportsNet on Madame Pele and Northwest Farms Stakes on Chu and You, and he leads all riders with 14 Washington Cup wins. Ricky Frazier is second with nine WA Cup victories… Harwood and Penney had one WA Cup win each and remain tied atop the all-time Washington Cup trainers’ standings at seven wins each. Howard Belvoir, who also had a win Sunday, is third with seven WA Cup wins… Sunday’s total handle of $1,360,947 was up 68.2 percent from last year’s WA Cup… He’s Not Bluffin, Chu and You and Five Times all became four time winners at the meet Sunday, upping the total to nine horses tied for most wins at the meet… Oldtimers Vision ($2.80) prevailed in the opener with $14,289 of $16,320 wagered in the show pool. Historic Calumet Farm bred the 2-year-old Pollard’s Vision gelding in Kentucky… E Z Kitty accounted for $37,223 of $44,698 wagered to show in the Pegasus Training Center Stakes… Live racing resumes Friday with first post 6:45 p.m.
