Hovdey: Call Prime Engine ‘Northwest Pharoah’

American Pharoah was one of approximately 23,500 North American Thoroughbred foals of 2012 registered with The Jockey Club. At least, that’s what the organization’s website says, but it also accepted the spelling of “pharoah,” so we’ll use that number with care.

The generation already has produced a Triple Crown winner, which should be enough to satisfy anyone’s definition of a good crop. But history encourages depth, and while American Pharoah has written the story of 2015 in his own terms, there is still work to be done to provide him with the context he deserves.

We already know how good Firing Line is and hopefully will be again. American Pharoah experienced his toughest race to beat him a length in the Kentucky Derby. Texas Red and Frosted both had their physical issues, but they have made it to midsummer in sharp form and show no signs of regression, while Keen Ice and Upstart have nothing to be embarrassed about after sucking down American Pharoah’s fumes in New Jersey.

Given the nature of the beast – 3-year-old racing, that is – it’s always wise to keep an open mind, even when most of the top slots have been filled. Two very interesting colts made themselves known last weekend in circumstances far removed from the air breathed by American Pharoah, although it is always fun to wonder what the champ would do with 1 1/16 miles on firm turf compared with the way Prospect Park dismantled the field in the La Jolla Handicap at Del Mar, or how American Pharoah’s nine-furlong stroll in the Haskell Invitational would have looked in the Great Northwest in the region’s premier race for the division.

Nobody east of the Sawtooth Range sets his clock by the Emerald Downs Derby, and that’s okay. The $65,000 purse is basically what American Pharoah gets in tip money after a routine gallop. Then a colt like Prime Engine comes along and wins it in a whirl, doing the 1 1/8 miles in a very smart 1:47.54 at odds-on.

Prime Engine is a son of Northern Afleet who made Seattle headlines last year by winning the Gottstein Futurity. He went on the road for Jerry Hollendorfer after that and was the third choice behind Mr. Z and Ocho Ocho Ocho in the $1 million Delta Downs Jackpot, but it was not a happy experience. He threw a gate fit, beat two horses, and ended up with an injured stifle.

After a period of rehab at the Pegasus Equine Center of his owner, Mark Dedomenico, Prime Engine was placed in the hands of Mike Puhich for an Emerald Downs campaign this spring. His goal was always the local Derby, but he lost three races in the meantime, and his people were beginning to wonder.

“Great price we got, 4-5, right?” Puhich said, tongue firmly in cheek. “The people I used to work for could get 10 or 12-1, but I can’t do it.

“The truth is, I’d been really disappointed,” Puhich went on. “I thought he was a special horse, and he hadn’t put it together. We put blinkers on him and changed riders, which sometimes helps. What he did on Sunday is the kind of horse I thought he was.”

Joe Steiner, who is in the middle of a career reinvigoration at Emerald Downs, was working Prime Engine for his comeback but ended up on other horses when the colt ran. Besides spending most of the meet in the standings’ top five, Steiner and his wife, the artist Dagmar Galleithner Steiner, welcomed their first child, Jonah, into the world July 28.

Puhich put Steiner back in the Prime Engine picture for two works prior to the local Derby, including a 57-and-change five-eighths drill six days out. Unless you’ve got Man o’ War, such a move is guaranteed to light a trainer’s hair on fire.

“I wanted to choke him,” Puhich said. “It was lucky there were pictures on social media of Joey and his baby with the horse, so I couldn’t stay mad for long. But Joey’s been on so many good horses in the morning, including a lot of great ones for Bob Baffert. He has totally believed in this horse from the first time he got on him.”

Among the Baffert horses Steiner worked regularly was Pioneerof the Nile, the winner of the Santa Anita Derby and the sire of you know who. The rider was not fazed by Prime Engine’s move.

“He was with a couple horses at the start of that work and then put six lengths on them just cruising, with his ears up,” Steiner said. “I knew we were going fast, but it wasn’t like he had his ears pinned and I was asking him. I know what it’s like to be on a Baffert horse when they work like that. And he was working like a Baffert horse.”

Puhich said a race like the $400,000 Super Derby at Louisiana Downs on Sept. 12 is very much on the table for Prime Engine, and in the long run, he would love to see the colt show up for the 2016 Longacres Mile, the most famous race in the Northwest, which is up for renewal this weekend.

“No horse has ever won the Gottstein Futurity, the Derby, and the Mile, our Triple Crown up here,” Puhich said. “The way he worked before the Derby, though, it’s probably just as well I didn’t nominate him for the Mile this year because I would have been tempted to skip the Derby and go there.”

And what did his jockey think?

“Joey said the colt could win right back in a week,” Puhich said.