I Keep Saying returns to sprint
AUBURN, Wash. – A horse on the way up will meet one slipping toward retirement Saturday in the featured race at Emerald Downs, a $40,000 claimer for older horses at 6 1/2 furlongs.
The 5-year-old I Keep Saying set a North American record for 6 1/2 furlongs earlier this year and figures to be one of the region’s top handicap horses in 2015. On the other side is the 8-year-old Winning Machine, a former stakes titan at Emerald who has missed the board in each of his five starts this year.
I Keep Saying and Winning Machine top a seven-horse field that also includes Dare Me Devil, the runner-up last Sunday in the restricted Muckleshoot Tribal Classic; Rocky’s Quest, who is 9 for 22 at Emerald Downs; plus hard-charging sprinters Fist Full of Green, Calculated Chaos, and Memphis Mobster.
I Keep Saying has been an in-house production for trainer Jim Penney and his family. The Penneys bred and raised I Keep Saying, who is by Yankee Gentleman from a Basket Weave mare, at their farm near Emerald Downs, and I Keep Saying has made each of his 18 starts in the Penneys’ familiar black-and-white silks. In his best effort, I Keep Saying blazed 6 1/2 furlongs in a North American record 1:12.94 on July 27.
I Keep Saying has lots of natural speed. He set the pace in the 1 1/16-mile Muckleshoot Tribal Classic before fading gradually to finish third behind Mike Man’s Gold and Dare Me Devil, and the turn back to a sprint distance Saturday could work to his advantage. After this race, Kay Cooper, who handles day-to-day operations in the Penney barn, will take I Keep Saying to Golden Gate Fields for a fall campaign.
“He’s never been on the turf, so we’ll try him once and see what we have there,” Cooper said. “We’ll take him down for a couple of races and then bring him home if he doesn’t like it. He’s still lightly raced, and we know he’s not ‘the’ route horse that we’d love to have, but I still think he’ll run a good mile, and he’d run an awesome seven-eighths. He’s been versatile. He’s really a nice horse.”
Winning Machine has already been to California this year, returning recently after two dull starts at Del Mar. Emerald Downs is his favorite sandbox – he has finished first or second in 17 of 38 local starts – but his effectiveness has waned. Winning Machine, who is just short of $500,000 in career earnings, has lost his past 14 starts.