Emerald Downs: Chu and You brings speed into Angie C

AUBURN, Wash. – Chu and You, an eye-catching winner of her only start, profiles as the horse to beat Sunday in the $50,000 Angie C Stakes at Emerald Downs. The meeting’s first stakes race for 2-year-old fillies attracted seven entrants, and Chu and You is likely to start as a short-priced favorite.

The six-furlong Angie C is the ninth race on a 10-race card that begins at 2 p.m. Pacific.

A homebred for Mike and Amy Feuerborn, Chu and You is a full sister to Chu and I, a stakes winner during his 2-year-old season in 2011, and Chu and You appears to be just as precocious as her big brother. In her career debut, which came against $25,000 maiden claimers July 13, Chu and You broke alertly to grab the lead, took a breather past the three-eighths pole, and then kicked away strongly to win by more than five lengths while running five furlongs in 57.60 seconds.

Juan Gutierrez, who steered Chu and You to her impressive victory for trainer Robbie Baze, will climb aboard again for the Angie C Stakes. Gutierrez began the week deadlocked with Isaias Enriquez atop the Emerald jockey standings, both with 68 wins through the first 47 days of the 75-day meeting. Enriquez has the riding assignment on See My Tail Lites for trainer Jim Penney.

While Chu and You is expected to make a beeline for the front end, she could have company in the form of Tinkerbelle Tops, whose maiden victory was no less brilliant than Chu and You’s. Tinkerbelle Tops opened a six-length lead around the turn in a 4 1/2-furlong dash June 1 and jogged home under Debbie Hoonan to win by five lengths in 51.57 seconds. While Chu and You earned a better Beyer Speed Figure – 64, compared to 54 for Tinkerbelle Tops – Tinkerbelle Tops left the impression she will have much more to offer in her second start.

Hoonan, who also piloted Angie C entrant Strawberry Dawn to a snappy maiden victory, has opted to stick with Tinkerbelle Tops for trainer Charles Essex. In her absence, Leonel Camacho-Flores will ride Strawberry Dawn, who earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 60 for her victory July 19. Strawberry Dawn moved readily to the leaders on the turn and powered away late, displaying the kind of versatility that could come in handy if Chu and You and Tinkerbelle Tops engage in a speed duel.

Others in the field are See My Tail Lites, a gate-to-wire winner in her only start; Decatur Princess, a distant fourth behind Strawberry Dawn in her debut; and likely longshot Simba’s Sis, who captured a $12,500 maiden claimer in her third start.