Washington Cup VI attracts large, championship field

A total of 79 nominations were made for the seven races – an average of more than 11 horses per event – in Sunday’s Washington Cup VI at Emerald Downs.

A total of 79 nominations were made for the seven races – an average of more than 11 horses per event – in Sunday’s Washington Cup VI at Emerald Downs.

First post is 2 p.m. The seven stakes are for Washington-bred horses only.

Five horses – including Longacres Mile winner Wasserman – were nominated to the $50,000 Chinook Pass Sprint at six furlongs and the $50,000 Muckleshoot Tribal Classic at a mile and one-sixteenth. Howard Belvoir, owner/trainer of Wasserman, was to decide Friday on which race to enter his prized 6-year-old gelding.

Wasserman, the career earnings leader at Emerald Downs with $396,234, has won three photo finishes this season under jockey Jennifer Whitaker – FSN Handicap by a head, Governor’s Handicap by a nose and Longacres Mile by a neck. The former two were sprints, and throughout his career Wasserman generally has performed better around one turn, but the gelding did finish third and second in the last two runnings of the Muckleshoot Tribal Classic.

Belvoir also nominated Immigration to the Chinook Pass Sprint and Muckleshoot Tribal Classic, and he nominated Mulcahy, a triple stakes winner at Emerald Downs in 2007, to the Sprint.

Washington Cup includes a pair of six-furlong events for 2-year-olds, the $50,000 Captain Condo Stakes for colts and geldings and the $50,000 Diane Kem Stakes for fillies. The Condo drew a whopping 16 nominations and the Kem received 14, including Ladyledue, eight-length winner of the Knights Choice Stakes in her debut last month.

Eleven colts and geldings were nominated to the $50,000 Trooper Seven Stakes, including quadruple stakes winner Margo’s Gift. Ten fillies were nominated to the $50,000 John & Kitty Fletcher Stakes including Enumclaw Girl, winner of this year’s U.S. Bank Stakes and Irish Day Handicap.

Fillies and mares will race a mile and one-sixteenth in the $50,000 Belle Roberts Handicap. Defending champion Hit a Star and Firetrail, winner of the John & Kitty Fletcher Stakes last year, head the nominees.