AUBURN, Wash. – The field for the Aug. 19 Longacres Mile came into clearer focus this week at Emerald Downs. According to their respective trainers, defending champion Awesome Gem is a definite, and Jersey Town, the Mile runner-up in 2010, is a definite maybe for the Northwest’s richest race.
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Mon, 05/28/2012 - 21:29
ALBANY, Calif. – Awesome Gem had done just about everything in a 50-race career, but did something new in winning the $100,000 Grade 3 Berkeley Handicap at Golden Gate Fields on Monday.
The multi-millionaire won on a disqualification for the first time in his career.
There’s a familiar storyline heading into Monday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Berkeley Handicap at Golden Gate Fields: A highly accomplished veteran millionaire heads the field and will be the target of several very sharp opponents.
But instead of the favorite being Bold Chieftain, who lost the race by a head in each of the past three years, it will be Awesome Gem.
Among his main opponents in the 1 1/16-mile Tapeta race are Hudson Landing, Gallant Son, Positive Response and Anthony’s Cross.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Those upstart 3-year-olds in the Kentucky Derby have nothing on a veteran gelding who just might just steal the show at Betfair Hollywood Park on Saturday.
Awesome Gem, 9 years old and still in graded-stakes form, enters the Grade 2 Mervyn LeRoy Handicap with little to prove except that for some horses, age does not matter.
“Look how good he looks,” trainer Craig Dollase said early this week as Awesome Gem came off the track following a crisp five-furlong workout. “He doesn’t know he’s 9.”
Tue, 04/10/2012 - 11:44
It looks like Positive Response and Awesome Gem will have a chance to prep for the Grade 3, $150,000 San Francisco Mile after all.
A one-mile allowance race that would have served the purpose was offered for last Saturday but didn’t fill. But racing secretary David Jerkens and his staff worked hard to get enough horses to run in a simlar race on Thursday’s card, 16 days before the April 28 San Francisco Mile, and now Awesome Gem, Positive Response and three others have a chance to go one mile on the turf.
\The 9-year-old veteran handicap star Awesome Gem is missing from Saturday’s $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap, but won’t be gone from the division for too much longer.
Training at Santa Anita with Craig Dollase, Awesome Gem is scheduled to return to racing this spring, with his first major goal the $1 million Charles Town Classic over 1 1/8 miles in West Virginia on April 14.
“We plan to run him at the end of March,” Dollase said. “We’re talking about the Charles Town race. We’ll see how it goes.”
The venerable gelding Awesome Gem, winner of the Grade 3 Longacres Mile at Emerald Downs in his most recent start Aug. 21, will soon be on the road again. Trainer Craig Dollase said he will point the 8-year-old to the Grade 2, $500,000 Hawthorne Gold Cup on Oct. 8.
Awesome Gem has won 9 races and more than $2.6 million from 46 starts on 17 different surfaces.
“If it’s wet and muddy, so much the better,” Dollase said.
AUBURN, Wash. – It’s been an unusual year for Craig Dollase. A highly regarded trainer in Southern California, he began the year in an 0-for-30 funk at Santa Anita, and while things have picked up lately, Dollase had saddled just seven winners in seven-plus months heading into the Grade 3 Longacres Mile last Sunday at Emerald Downs.
AUBURN, Wash. -- Awesome Gem won the 76thLongacres Mile on Sunday at Emerald Downs, defeating local hero Noosa Beach in the Northwest’s Grade 3, $200,000 showcase. Dubbed “the ATM of West Point Thoroughbreds” by trainer Craig Dollase, Awesome Gem pocketed $110,000 to run his career earnings to nearly $2.7 million.
AUBURN, Wash. − The Awesome Gem barnstorming tour is coming to Emerald Downs. Southern California-based trainer Craig Dollase confirmed as much this week, committing his vagabond stable star to a start in the Grade 3, $200,000 Longacres Mile on Aug. 21.
This year’s edition of the Northwest’s only graded race already boasted considerable star power in Noosa Beach, the defending champion who has won seven consecutive stakes. But Awesome Gem pushes the Mile’s Q rating to another level.