Emerald Downs: You Me and Ema B bounces back with score in Boeing Handicap

AUBURN, Wash. – You Me and Ema B atoned for a last-place finish in her previous start with a handy victory Saturday in the $50,000 Boeing Handicap at Emerald Downs. It was the fourth victory in five career starts for You Me and Ema B, a 4-year-old filly owned and trained by Margo Lloyd and ridden by Deborah Hoonan-Trujillo.

You Me and Ema B won her first three starts, capped by a victory in the six-furlong Hastings Handicap in May, before fading to finish 11th in the 6 1/2-furlong Washington State Legislators Stakes last month. That effort left her cold in the betting Sunday – she paid $16 as the fifth choice in a field of nine. Zenovit, the lukewarm favorite at 3-1, finished sixth.

Sis’s Sis, a multiple stakes winner at Emerald, broke sharply to set the pace, with You Me and Ema B close on her heels. You Me and Ema B moved up to take command on the far turn and wasn’t seriously challenged thereafter. Sis’s Sis held on to finish second, two lengths behind the winner and a half-length in front of Rewritten, who closed from midpack to finish third. You Me and Ema B covered the mile on a fast track in 1:37.48.

Sweet Nellie Brown finished fourth, followed by Hard Way Ten, Zenovit, Dream Sweeper, Eyes On the Prize and Fifie's Fantasy.

The victory was worth $27,500, pushing You Me and Ema B’s career earnings to $72,765 for Lloyd, a veteran trainer with a small string of horses who had never saddled a stakes winner until You Me and Ema B broke through earlier this year. Hoonan-Trujillo, who has ridden You Me and Ema B in each of her starts, and whose father, Patrick Hoonan, owns a small piece of the horse, has now captured 12 stakes at Emerald Downs, including three this season.

“We weren’t sure she could run the distance,” Hoonan-Trujillo said of You Me and Ema B, a daughter of You and I, from the Son of Briartic dam Carrie Ann. “She looks like a sprinter, but she is very efficient. It was a blessing that (Sis’s Sis) took the lead in the first turn. It allowed by horse to relax on the outside … Once we took the lead, I thought we had it won. She is just too hard to pass.”

Next up on the Emerald Downs stakes schedule for older fillies and mares is the $65,000 Emerald Distaff at nine furlongs on Aug. 21.