The classy mare No Flies On Doodle regained her winning form Friday with a gate-to-wire victory in the $18,600 Pat Keaton’s Retirement Purse for fillies and mares at Emerald Downs.
A four-time stakes winner locally, No Flies On Doodle had lost eight straight races before the three-quarter-length victory under jockey Javier Matias. The 5-year-old ran one mile in 1:39.19 on a fast track and paid $4.60, $3 and $2.20. Vann Belvoir is the trainer for owner West Coast Racing LLC.
No Flies On Doodle has compiled an 8-3-1 record from 19 starts with earnings of $182,058. But the daughter of Strom Blast does her best running at Emerald Downs where she has won 8-of-12 including two stakes wins in both 2009 and 2010.
Greenback Forest, a 7-to-1 long shot ridden by Deborah Hoonan-Trujillo, rallied inside for second and paid $4.20 and $2.80. Jenjor, a northern California invader ridden by Juan Gutierrez, finished third and paid $2.60.
Include the Baby, the 8-to-5 second choice, pressed the pace to the head of the stretch and weakened to finish fourth, and Private Fortune was fifth.
No Flies On Doodle set fractions of :25.02, :49.37, 1:13.78 and 1:26.05 en route to the victory, her first in three starts at the meeting.
Vann Belvoir also saddled third race winner In the Bushes ($3.20) and tied his father, Howard Belvoir, for first in the trainers standings at 18-all.
NOTES: First-time starter Goldledue romped by 13-¼ lengths in the opener under Jose Zunino for trainer Neil Knapp. The 3-year-old Harbor the Gold gelding ran 5 ½ furlongs in 1:04.75 and paid $17.
Jockey Leonel Camacho-Flores, back after missing nearly two weeks with a sprained ankle, rode two winners: Maker Happy ($7.20) in the second race and Buddy Dave ($9.80) in the fourth.
Perfect Pie ($14.40) and Kactus Relevation ($6.80) scored in races seven and eight for red-hot trainer Chris Stenslie, now 7-3-0 in her last 14 starts at Emerald Downs. The late “Stenslie double” paid $58.20.
Live racing continues Saturday with first post at 2:15 p.m…Post time for the 143rd running of the $1,000,000 Belmont Stakes is 3:35 p.m. (PDT).
