Emerald Downs: Elusive Noise, Love Makor give Wenzel potent pair in allowance feature

AUBURN, Wash. – Racing at Emerald Downs begins at 1 p.m. Pacific on Saturday, a special post time to accommodate the Kentucky Derby simulcast and a nine-race card.

The Derby Day feature race is a $21,000 allowance for 3-year-old fillies at 5-1/2 furlongs. Six horses were entered, including a formidable pair trained by Tom Wenzel.

Elusive Noise, a six-length winner in her career debut April 17, figures to be the wagering favorite. Trained by Wenzel for owner Jerre Paxton’s Northwest Farms, Elusive Noise is bred like a Kentucky Derby contender. Her sire, Elusive Quality, sired 2004 Derby winner Smarty Jones. Her dam’s sire, Broad Brush, finished third behind Ferdinand in the 1986 Derby.

Paxton paid $110,000 for Elusive Noise at Keeneland in January 2009. Placed into training last summer at 2, Elusive Noise suffered setbacks that forced Wenzel to turn her out until her 3-year-old season. His patience was rewarded when Elusive Noise crushed four opponents in a maiden race on the third day of the Emerald meeting. She led all the way, running five furlongs in 56.80 seconds, the final sixteenth in 11.75.

Jockey Juan Gutierrez will be back aboard Elusive Noise, who drew the outside post position. Her stablemate, Love Makor, will break from the inside under Gallyn Mitchell.

Love Makor has won 2 of 5 career starts for owner Karl Krieg, most recently taking a six-furlong allowance race at Turf Paradise in February. She won her career debut at Emerald Downs last September, dominating a $20,000 maiden race by 9 3/4 lengths. She’s already stakes-placed, finishing third in the 6 1/2-furlong Arizona Juvenile Filly Stakes the day after Christmas.

Both Love Makor and Elusive Noise like to race on or near the lead, though Love Makor demonstrated some versatility in Arizona. However Wenzel chooses to play it, his two figure to have their hands full with Class Included, an easy winner in her final start of 2010 for trainer Jim Penney.

Class Included, bred by owners Mike and Amy Feuerborn in Kentucky, is by Include, a son of Broad Brush. There’s a second Include filly in Saturday’s race. Wings of Pegasus, by Include from a Fusaichi Pegasus mare, is trained by Vann Belvoir for an ownership group that includes Emerald Downs vice president Jack Hodge. The group purchased Wings of Pegasus for $20,000 at the 2009 Keeneland September yearling sale, the very sale that produced Uncle Mo, Nehro, Archarcharch, Animal Kingdom, and Soldat – five of the 20 scheduled to run in the Derby.