Aloha Breeze the one to catch in Emerald Distaff
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Tom Wenzel will be the first to tell you that his stable’s star, Aloha Breeze, is best suited to sprints. But the mare has been so dominant at Emerald Downs, where she has 13 wins and three seconds from 18 starts, that she’s certain to go off favored in the 1 1/16-mile Emerald Distaff on Sunday.
“We’ve been able to stretch her out at this track against the local company,” Wenzel said. “She’s run some pretty good times stretching out, but she really is a sprinter.”
Aloha Breeze has led at every call in 14 of her 15 career wins. She won the $50,000 Distaff by 11 lengths in 2024 before running a close second to Stay Sassy a year ago.
Aloha Breeze has shown no signs of slowing down at age 6, earning a career-high 86 Beyer Speed Figure in a 5 1/2-furlong allowance to open her 2026 campaign off a layoff of more than seven months. She’s followed that up with a pair of easy stakes wins at six and 6 1/2 furlongs.
Stay Sassy, who is also 6, returns to defend her Distaff title, but Aloha Breeze has blown her doors off in four showdowns since, including the 1 1/16-mile Muckleshoot Tribal Distaff last Sept. 7.
Aloha Breeze is the clear speed in a race that’s devoid of pure closers. The only thing her six rivals can hope for is that she sets blazing fractions and runs out of gas. Should that happen, Someday Lady, who is 4-2-1-1 at this distance and won a 1 1/16-mile stakes in Canada last year as a 3-year-old, might offer good value as one who is capable of stealing the prize from a stalking position.
Muckleshoot Derby
Wenzel’s Robin Racer is the one to beat in the $50,000 Muckleshoot Derby, a 1 1/16-mile stakes that has attracted a competitive field of 10 3-year-olds.
The winner of the mile and 70-yard Gottstein Futurity here at 2, Robin Racer kicked off this Emerald campaign by winning a 5 1/2-furlong starter allowance. He followed that up with a second-place finish to Chase in the six-furlong Auburn Stakes and a win over the same rival in the Seattle Slew, a one-mile race in which he earned a career-best 76 Beyer Speed Figure.
Count Dalia has the best last-out Beyer in the field, earning a 77 in a six-furlong romp July 24, but he’s never gone beyond that distance. Other serious contenders include the speedster Chase, trained by Steve Henson; Senor Tequilas, who ran third in the Seattle Slew; and Kay Cooper’s lightly raced Nightcap Recap, who has posted Beyers of 72 and 75 in his only two starts.
◗ Rounding out the Longacres Mile undercard are two gender-restricted six-furlong stakes for 2-year-olds, the WTBOA Lads and Lassies, and the 1 1/16-mile Washington Oaks for 3-year-old fillies. Wenzel’s Falling Leaves won the Kent Stakes, a one-mile prep for the Oaks, followed by Alluring Valentine and Tipitap, the latter of whom finished full of run.
“She leaned in a little bit at the three-sixteenths pole,” trainer Blaine Wright said of Tipitap. “If she can figure that out, the added distance should help her.”
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