Five Star General takes Longacres Mile

The $150,000 Longacres Mile, which was run for the 88th time on Sunday, was won comfortably by Five Star General, the 2-1 favorite of the betting public.

After first stalking longshot pacesetter A Man's Man, Five Star General took command just inside the three-eighths pole before opening a comfortable lead and crossing the wire a 1 1/2-length winner under jockey Joe Bravo.

Il Belator was well rated by Alejandro Gomez to be second, 3 3/4 lengths in front of defending Mile winner Slew's Tiz Whiz, who came from well back under Jose Zunino to be third.

The early pace in the Mile was not particularly fast by Emerald Downs standards. The early splits were 22.79, 45.71, 1:09.66, and the one-mile distance was run in 1:34.73 over a fast track. Five Star General paid $6 to win.

A festive reception awaited the victor in the winner's circle with winning owner Ken Alhadeff represented there by his brother Mike. Alhadeff runs under Elttaes Stable. Trainer Grant Forster won his second Longacres Mile, having scored previously with outsider No Giveaway in 2005.

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The Mile undercard featured three additional stakes events. The first was the $50,000 Emerald Distaff, in which favored Tiz a Macho Girl got first run on chief rival Blazingbellablu along the backstretch. The winning margin was 1 1/2 lengths with the early race-riding having accounted for the difference.

Tiz a Macho Girl is owned by Letha and Steve Haahr and trained by Tom Wenzel. Carlos Montalvo was the winning rider and the 1 1/16 miles was covered in 1:44.17.

The $50,000 Muckleshoot Derby was taken by heavy favorite Prince Abu Dhabi ($3.20), who bided his time toward the back of the field before the speed started to come back to the group. At the wire Prince Abu Dhabi had a comfortable 1 3/4-length margin over runner-up Deshambeau. It was another 5 1/4 lengths back to J C's a Legend in third.

The other stakes on the card was the $50,000 Washington Oaks, which was swept by outsiders after 2-5 favorite Aloha Breeze failed to stay the 1 1/16-mile distance. The winner was Jamies Inheritance, who paid $49.60 to her scattered backers. The Charles Essex trainee is owned by Richard Rennie and was ridden to a romping seven-length score by Jose Zunino. Runner-up was Avanti Leah, trained by Kay Cooper, while the third-place finisher was Pepper Mill, from the barn of Edward Kereluk. That trio, at 23-1, 39-1, and 47-1, respectively, made for a 50-cent trifecta windfall of $6310.70.

The mutuel handle on Mile day was $3,019,386, the fourth-highest total in Emerald Downs history.

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