Ms Flashy Harbor takes another shot at Miss Union
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Winning is nice, but it’s not everything. It’s a good thing Emerald Downs trainer Steve Bullock feels that way, otherwise at this point he might be pretty frustrated with his 6-year-old mare Ms Flashy Harbor.
Bullock claimed Ms Flashy Harbor for $15,000 in June 2024. She won the next month for Bullock, but hasn’t won since in 15 additional tries. She’s run competitively, however, finishing in the money in nine of those tries, including her last six races in a row – three seconds and three thirds.
Bullock, who has a six-horse stable, has won 3 of 15 races this year while finishing in the money 12 times. He has the best in-the-money percentage of any Emerald trainer this meet with more than six starts. In 30 years as a trainer, the best in-the-money mark Bullock has posted was 64 percent from 80 starts in 2023. The most wins he’s had was 40 from 203 starts in 2000.
“I like that high percentage. We strive to run one-two-three every time,” said Bullock, who got his start in the sport in 1974 as a 15-year-old exercise rider at Longacres before becoming Howard Belvoir’s assistant trainer. “The horses are running great. It’s a shame that we lay ’em off for six months and then train ’em and are only able to run ’em about three and a half months. Our meet’s so short. I wish we’d run longer.”
Ms Flashy Harbor will not be favored in race 4 on Friday, a $15,000 claiming race for fillies and mares at six furlongs. That distinction will almost certainly belong to Miss Union, who defeated Ms Flashy Harbor by 6 1/4 lengths last out on June 26 at this same level.
“It’s gonna be a tough task because that horse won pretty easily last time, but I’d be surprised if we ran worse than third,” Bullock said. “She just wants to lay back and make a late run, even if you hustle her down the backside. She won on the front end a few times when she was younger, but now, no matter how hard you ride her down the backside, she just comes running late.”
Miss Union, a stakes winner at Turf Paradise, ran her best race in two years in that gate-to-wire effort on June 26. She earned a 76 Beyer Speed Figure, by far the best last-out number in Friday’s field.
In her prior race, her Emerald debut, she had one of her worst showings in the past couple of years, finishing fourth by 8 1/4 lengths with a 53 Beyer.
“Her first race, she didn’t like the dirt in her face. Her other race, she was just on her game,” said trainer Steve Henson, who previously had Miss Union at Hastings. “She’s run against some pretty solid mares in Vancouver. She’s older. I was surprised she won as easily as she did.”
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