The 2-year-olds kick into high gear Sunday with a pair of stake races at Emerald Downs. In race six, colts and geldings meet in the $30,000 NWSS Strong Ruler Stakes at 5 ½ furlongs. And in race eight, fillies get their turn in the $30,000 NWSS Knights Choice Stakes, also at 5 ½ furlongs.

The Strong Ruler looks to be a wide-open affair. The nine runners entered include six maidens and two first-time starters.

Hall of Fame trainer Jim Penney entered two in the Strong Ruler, the maiden Stellar Blue and first-time starter Big Bad Brown. Big Bad Brown is a half-brother to Sweet Nellie Brown, a quality 3-year-old filly at Emerald Downs, and while Big Bad Brown has yet to race, the Tribunal colt has posted a solid work tab for a barn that has already popped with six firsts at the meet.

According to assistant trainer Kay Cooper, he is quite the precocious lad and is ready to run.

“He’s really starting to come into his own,” she said. “He should be in the hunt all the way.”

The Bonnie Jenne-trained Couldabenthewhisky is coming off a four-length victory on June 13 and might be favored. Ridden by Kevin Krigger, Couldabenthewhisky set a pressured pace and drew off as the clear winner, and Jenne said the Harbor the Gold gelding came out of the race feeling great.

“He’s pretty professional,” Jenne said. “He’s been training really well since his last win.”

Krigger, The Gift Horse Jockey of the Week, elected to ride Winter Warlock, the first starter and winner for Washington-based sire Demon Warlock, who won two stakes races at Emerald Downs.

The statistics bode well for Jenne, because female trainers have won the Strong Ruler four out of the last five years. Doris Harwood, who won this race last year with Knight Raider, or Connie Bouslaugh could make it 5-of-6 with Gdanz Xpress and Buckle, respectively.

Miguel Perez makes his return to Emerald Downs Saturday and will ride Sharp Focus for trainer Steve Bullock in Sunday’s Stakes. The Mexico City native last rode at Emerald Downs in 2005.

The field for the 60th running of the NWSS Strong Ruler Stakes: Buckle, Troy Stillwell, 118 lbs.; Sharp Focus, Perez, 118; Majorca Gold, Gallyn Mitchell, 118; Couldabenthewhisky, Ricky Frazier, 120; Gdanz Xpress, Francisco Duran, 120; Stolen Rio, Deborah Hoonan-Trujillo, 118; Stellar Blue, Inoel Beato, 118; Winter Warlock, Kevin Krigger, 120; Big Bad Brown, Juan Gutierrez, 118.

JUVENILE FILLIES IN KNIGHTS CHOICE |

RICKY FRAZIER SEEKS FIFTH STRAIGHT VICTORY

Eight 2-year-old fillies were entered in the Knights Choice, a race owned in recent seasons by jockey Ricky Frazier.

Frazier set the record for most consecutive wins in a stakes race last year, after he won his fourth straight Knights Choice with his victory aboard Knight Raider. The 24-year riding veteran will pilot trainer Doris Harwood’s first-time starter Carrabelle Harbor.

Carrabelle Harbor is one of two live entries from the Harwood barn and has boasted some sensational works. The Harbor the Gold filly posted bullet works at two furlongs, four furlongs and five furlongs, in which she skipped over the dirt surface in 59 2/5 seconds (1/39).

“She does everything right,” said Harwood, first all-time with 43 stakes wins at Emerald Downs. “I don’t work my horses fast, so this goes to show you how exceptional she has been working.”

Bell Adieu, a daughter of Tribunal, is Harwood’s other entry and comes off a solid second-place finish in her June 26 debut and will be ridden by Gallyn Mitchell.

Depending on the Strong Ruler results, Harwood’s horses could have implications on who will become the leader in career stakes wins at Emerald Downs, as Frazier and Mitchell are both tied at 65.

A victory for Harwood, who recently passed Bud Klokstad for most stakes wins by a trainer at Emerald Downs, will be her 35th stakes win in the past four seasons. She also has been dominant with juveniles, including a record 21 wins by 2-year-olds in 2009.

Harwood would have had a third entry, but trainer Bill Thompson swooped into the claim box for Iforgottobeme, taking the Free At Last filly for $12,500 from a winning effort on July 8. Iforgottobeme ran the five furlongs in 57 4/5 and received a 59 Beyer Speed Figure, the highest in Sunday’s field.

The Knights Choice is the first of four stakes races designed for 2-year-old fillies, with the $50,000 Barbara Shinpoch on Aug. 29 set as the championship event. The last two Knights Choice winners, Knight Raider and Ladyledue, also captured the Top-2-Year-Old Filly honors.

The field for the 32nd running of the NWSS Knights Choice Stakes: The Gang and I, Francisco Duran, 119 pounds; Allison Ridge, Kevin Krigger, 119; Iforgottobeme, Juan Gutierrez, 119; Carrabelle Harbor, Frazier, 117; Bell Adieu, Mitchell, 117; Ms Moscow Mattie, Inoel Beato, 119; For the Rest of Us, Troy Stillwell, 117; Julie M C M, Jorge Rosales, 119.

LONGACRES MILE

The 2009 Longacres Mile Grade 3 continues to produce winners at an exceptional rate. Horses that ran in The Mile have won 16-of-49 subsequent starts, including an astonishing 14 stakes with $1,425,514 in earnings.

The 2009 Mile also produced six next-out winners and three graded stakes winners. The top two finishers in the 2009 Mile, Assessment and Awesome Gem, both notched stakes victories last week while taking down odds-on favorites.

Assessment defeated 1-to-2 favorites Noosa Beach in the $50,000 Governor’s Handicap at Emerald Downs while Awesome Gem knocked off 2-to-5 favorite Rail Trip in the Grade 1, $500,000 Hollywood Gold Cup at Hollywood Park.

Since finishing second in the Longacres Mile, Awesome Gem has posted two graded victories, the Grade 2 Hawthorne Gold Cup and the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup*and nearly $900,000 in purses. And fifth-place finisher Atta Boy Roy prevailed in the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Handicap and placed in the Grade 3 Aristides Handicap.

In order of finish, here’s how the 2009 Longacres Mile participants have fared since Aug. 16, 2009: 1st-Assessment –3-1-0-0-$28,750; 2nd Awesome Gem 8-2-2-1-$861,000; 3rd Teide 7-4-2-0-$166,500; 4th Wasserman 5-1-0-0-$32,525; 5th Atta Boy Roy 6-3-2-0-$252,063; 6th Bank Emblem 3-2-0-0-$48,600; 7th Autism Awareness 2-0-1-0-$20,000; 8th Gallon 6-1-1-2-$33,225; 9th Sierra Sunset unraced; 10th Kruger Park 5-2-1-1-$27,631; 11th Trumpet Player Jay 4-0-0-$4,140; 12th Crafty Power unraced.

MIGUEL PEREZ RETURNS TO EMERALD DOWNS

The jockey colony at Emerald Downs will add another accomplished rider Saturday with the return of Miguel Perez.

Most recently, Perez rode at Sunray Park in New Mexico, where he picked up 13 winners in 105 mounts this season.

The 39-year-old native of Mexico City hasn’t ridden at Emerald Downs since 2005, when he posted a 9-3-2 record in 28 mounts. His most notable season came in 2000*his first year at Emerald Downs*when he finished in second place with 110 wins including seven stakes. He began that meet with a bang, riding five winners on opening night.

Perez began riding horses at the Hipodromo de las Americas in 1985, in Mexico City and became licensed in 1987. His career record stands at 1156-1047-1108 in 7946 mounts. Perez has earned more than $17 million in purse money.

His agent is Steve Puhich, who is also the cousin of Emerald Downs’ trainer Michael Puhich.

News and Notes

• Week 14 honors: Jockey-Kevin Krigger (10 wins); Trainer-Tim McCanna (5-win-day tied state record); Owner-Lou & Diane Tice (Assessment); Groom-Ramon Fernandez (Howard Belvoir).

• Squeallin By, ridden by A.L. Gutierrez, will put her undefeated record on the line Saturday as she goes for her fourth consecutive victory in the eighth race. The Washington-bred by Petersburg is one of 14 horses with three wins at the meet, and one of only five with a 3-for-3 mark (The others are Cliff’s Secret, Classielyte, Feeling Fancy and No Flies On Doodle.

• Trainer Howard Belvoir said that Governor’s Handicap winner Assessment will defend his title in the 1 & 1/8-mile Mt. Rainier Handicap on Aug. 1.

• Trainer Bonnie Jenne said Ladyledue, the Top 2-Year-Old Filly of 2008 and Top 3-Year-Old Filly of 2009, will produce her first foal, a colt by Birdstone, in February.

• Tim McCanna is 11-for-27 in July and is back in the hunt for leading trainer. The nine-time Emerald Downs champion began Week 15 with 31 wins, just four behind Vann Belvoir in first place and two back of Frank Lucarelli in second.

• Ricky Frazier began the week with a 58-49 lead over Juan Gutierrez in the jockeys’ standings. Gallyn Mitchell is third with 42.

• Michael and Amy Feuerborn lead Homestretch Farms Inc. 10-9 in the owners’ standings.