It's Turbo can motor home off expected quick pace

It’s Turbo figures to benefit from an expected swift early pace and looks like the one to beat in Saturday’s feature race at Emerald Downs.

The 5 1/2-furlong allowance event will go as the seventh race on a card that boasts a trio of allowance events.

It’s Turbo, owned by REV Racing LLC, prepped last month in a race at Turf Paradise, which was his first start in 11 months. In that April 15 affair the son of Curlin to Mischief was hammered at the start and then bumped solidly on the turn while racing wide. He finished an encouraging fourth behind Welton, who is entered on Sunday at Emerald Downs.

“It was just what I wanted,” trainer Frank Lucarelli said, “get a start in him and get him up to Emerald. He looks tighter and fitter. He should run a lot better” in his second start off the long rest.

Saturday’s opposition contains a number of speed merchants, including Mister Mafioso, Peter Flies, and Mister Midas. Mister Mafioso is trained by Faustino Patino and will start from the rail while trying his luck in the allowance ranks after facing $15,000 claiming stock for most of the 2023 local season.

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Peter Flies will go postward for trainer Charles Essex. He has not been beaten to the two-furlong marker after eight starts. Top rider Alex Cruz is named Saturday.

Mister Midas, having drawn outside, may be the last speedster to commit, and that just might represent an edge over his pace foes.

An important component to fast races are stalkers who turn up the pace pressure at mid-race assuring that the tempo remains lively. Saturday’s field includes a pair of 3-year-olds already facing their elders – Beer Begone, trained by Justin Evans, and Rimrock Lake, from the Jose Navarro barn.

Each of the sophomores seems likely to move into the heat of the pace on the turn while helping to maintain a solid tempo. Rimrock Lake won the restricted Washington Cup Juvenile Colts and Geldings on Aug. 27 with Beer Begone fourth in the same event. Rimrock Lake won his first two starts by open lengths and then floundered attempting the 1 1/16-mile distance of the Gottstein Futurity in his final start of 2023.

Patino also has Mangia Pane entered in the feature, and that gelding figures to race from well off the pace on Saturday giving Patino a speed horse and a closer in the same seven-horse field.

Saturday is expected to bring warm weather to the area, and the eight-race card will commence at 1:30 p.m. Pacific.

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