Hastings invader could spoil party for Find Your Spot

AUBURN, Wash. – Find Your Spot, who took control of Emerald Downs’s 3-year-old filly division with a victory in the Irish Day Handicap on June 29, will face a formidable newcomer Saturday in the $50,000 Kent Handicap at 1 1/16 miles. Ole’s Miss, shipping in from Hastings in Vancouver, British Columbia, already boasts three stakes victories, and her powerful late kick might be even more effective on the one-mile oval at Emerald Downs than it has been on the bullring at Hastings.

Find Your Spot has won four consecutive starts, and her Irish Day victory marked her first route attempt. Most of the chatter before the Irish Day centered on her showdown with the front-running Chu and You, Emerald’s top 2-year-old filly in 2013. Chu and You set a contested pace in the one-mile Irish Day before tiring through the final sixteenth to finish second, 1 1/4 lengths behind Find Your Spot.

The scenario could be much the same in the Kent, with Chu and You and the improving Belladiva dictating the tempo, while Find Your Spot takes up the chase from a stalking position and Ole’s Miss bides her time at the back.

KEY CONTENDERS

OLE’S MISS (Last 3 Beyers: 80, 80, 65)

◗ Ole’s Miss has won three successive sprints but is 0 for 2 at route distances. That probably speaks more to the small sample size than to any issue with Ole’s Miss’s ability to go long. She’s by the Bertrando stallion Officer out of a Malibu Moon mare, and Ole’s Miss finished full of run going 1 1/16 miles in her last start.

◗ Ole’s Miss’s Beyer Speed Figures are superior to anything posted by the five rivals she is scheduled to face in the Kent. Chu and You posted a career-best 73 Beyer when she finished second in the Seattle Handicap in June. Find Your Spot earned a 70 for her Kent victory and a 73 for her victory in a first-level allowance June 14.

FIND YOUR SPOT (Last 3 Beyers: 70, 73, 72)

◗ A versatile filly who has won 5 of 8 starts, Find Your Spot has recorded victories at four distances and on three difference surfaces: Tapeta at Golden Gate, wet dirt at Santa Anita, and fast dirt at Emerald Downs.

CHU AND YOU (Last 3 Beyers: 68, 72, 42)

◗ While she is winless in three starts this year, Chu and You has been a more well-rounded horse. She won her first four starts at 2 on the front end without being challenged and then folded up at the first sign of pressure in start No. 5. This year, she fought back gamely when headed by City by the Bay in the Seattle Handicap and offered stout resistance to Find Your Spot in the Irish Day.