Barkley preps for Longacres Mile in Mount Rainier

The $50,000 Mount Rainier for 3-year-olds and up on Thursday at Emerald Downs should give us a good idea who will be the local favorite for the Grade 3, $100,000 Longacres Mile. Also on the Thursday card is the $50,000 Boeing Stakes for fillies and mares.

The Longacres Mile is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 10. If fans are allowed back at Emerald before then, the date for the Mile could be moved.

Trainer Howard Belvoir is hoping for a strong performance by Barkley in the Mount Rainier. The 2018 Mile winner, Barkley figures to be a short price in the 6 1/2-furlong dash, which drew seven horses. It goes as the ninth race on an 11-race card that begins at 5:15 p.m. Pacific.

Barkley is by far the best horse in the Mount Rainier. However, he has something to prove after starting just once last year, on May 12, and once this year.

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He had been away for more than a year when he finished second as the even-money favorite in a conditioned allowance race with a $50,000 claiming option on July 15. He spotted the field quite a few lengths when he broke poorly, and then had too much ground to make up in the 5 1/2-furlong sprint, won by Thursday rival Take Charge Deputy.

Belvoir likes the way Barkley is training coming into the Mount Rainier.

“He was pretty much done at the break,” Belvoir said Monday of his 2020 debut. “He’s doing great now. I sharpened him up with a quarter-mile work Sunday, and he was a wild horse this morning.”

With the cobwebs dusted off and a bullet five-furlong move July 31 by Barkley, it is easy to imagine a strong effort from the classy 7-year-old, who has compiled a sterling 10-5-1 record from 19 starts for earnings of $367,825.

He will break from post 5 with his usual rider, Javier Matias, aboard.

Elliott Bay is coming off a front-running victory in a conditioned allowance race in his first start of the year on July 2 with Matias riding.

Taking advantage of a track favoring speed, the 5-year-old son of Harbor the Gold broke alertly from the rail, and after holding one-length advantage at the half-mile call drew off to win the 5 1/2-furlong sprint by 7 1/2 lengths.

Trained by Frank Lucarelli, Elliott Bay isn’t likely going to be able to keep up with Papa’s Golden Boy early, but could be dangerous from a stalking position with Heribert Martinez picking up the mount.

Alittlesstalk favored in Boeing

The 6 1/2-furlong Boeing Stakes is a highly competitive event, with Alittlesstalk the 3-1 morning-line favorite in the seven-horse field.

Alittlesstalk won over Dontkissntell when she made her 4-year-old debut in a $50,000 optional race July 16.

The Roddina Barret-trained Alittlelesstalk was the champion 3-year-old filly at Emerald last year, and she closed out the season with a 12th-place finish in the Grade 2 Autumn Miss on Oct. 26 at Santa Anita, where she tried turf for the first time.

Tossing the Autumn Miss and her fifth-place finish after a brutal trip in the $50,000 Irish Day last summer at Emerald, she has been a gem of consistency, winning five times with three runner-up finishes in 12 starts. One of her second-place finishes came when she took on the boys in the $50,000 Muckleshoot Derby at Emerald last summer.