Lumm seeks to extend roll at Emerald
AUBURN, Wash. – Trainer Roy Lumm, off to a strong start at the month-old Emerald Downs meeting, will send out Tabled With Gold as a leading contender in Saturday’s $18,900 featured race for fillies and mares. First post for the nine-race card is 2 p.m. Pacific.
Tabled With Gold missed by a head in a $25,000 claimer in her last start. Saturday’s race, a first-level allowance with a $25,000 optional-claiming price at six furlongs, provides a slightly more difficult test, but Tabled With Gold has improved steadily. The Patricia Zacker homebred has yet to finish worse than third in seven career outings.
Lumm, 76, isn’t one to talk up his horses, though he gives Tabled With Gold credit for being a “little tryer.” The Formal Gold filly began her career last July in a bottom-level maiden claimer but advanced to the allowance ranks just two months later. She’ll be making her third start of the year Saturday.
“She looks like she fits in here okay,” Lumm said. “She’s not a stake horse, but she’s a steady little filly. She’s not very big, but she’s a consistent filly. She’s nothing probably outstanding. She’s not real impressive to look at or anything.”
While she has been consistent, Tabled With Gold has yet to settle on a preferred running style. She got involved in a speed duel in her last start but came from far off the pace in her most recent victory. Her versatility could be an asset in a speed-laden field. She and jockey Gallyn Mitchell will break from post 4 in a field of eight. Alert in Class, the likely favorite following a pair of sharp efforts at Golden Gate Fields, will start from the outside. Others in the field are Holy Dazzle, likely pacesetter River of Aces, Grab Ahold, Havasu Falls, Stephanie Plum, and Beutranda.
A strong showing by Tabled With Gold would extend Lumm’s recent hot streak. Ten of his 14 starters at the meet have recorded a top-three finish, and his horses consistently have outrun their odds. It’s almost enough to impress Lumm, a former jockey and now a trainer for more than 30 years.
“Most of ’em are running pretty good,” he said. “You know, we haven’t got any real expensive horses. We’re just trying to take care of what we’ve got and get along as well as we can. I wish we had a couple of rockets. But if we can keep these hard knockers going, we’ll be okay.”