Papa's Golden Boy, Slew's Tiz Whiz continue rivalry in Budweiser Stakes

Slew’s Tiz Whiz and Papa’s Golden Boy will renew their local rivalry for the seventh time in Sunday’s $50,000 Budweiser Stakes over six furlongs at Emerald Downs. The pair were prominent in the Emerald stakes ranks in 2022 before Papa’s Golden Boy was sidelined late in the year and then missed all of 2023.

The pair met in their 2024 debuts, a June 2 allowance race, with Papa’s Golden Boy putting on a memorable exhibition. The Vince Gibson trainee was well restrained away from the gate before accelerating to a clear lead and then holding on to win by a length on a sloppy surface.

Slew’s Tiz Whiz flew home in that race to be fourth, beaten 2 3/4 lengths, while making his first start since September. The Tom Wenzel charge has been working smartly all spring and certainly wasn’t at his best distance in the 5 1/2-furlong race.

Prisoner, the second-place finisher trained by Justin Evans, was the even-money choice of the betting crowd. The son of Violence had previously won a starter-allowance event on May 19, earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 85. The catch in the starter allowance was that the pace was quite slow, and only three horses ran. Evans will saddle three runners in Sunday’s feature.

“On paper [the Budweiser] is an amazing race with some really nice horses,” Evans said. “Prisoner was most impressive, even in the loss. The rail draw really hurt him the other day.”

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Prisoner is 11 for 22 lifetime and boasts a strong 4-for-7 mark on wet tracks. Handicappers will have to determine whether Prisoner’s strong showing on June 2 was due in part to a love for wet surfaces.

Evans’s other entrants are Cool Papa G, who exits an allowance win on May 18, and Neiman, a lightly raced 4-year-old who won an allowance on June 1.

A runner with longshot potential is Company’s Dream, who sports the same connections as Papa’s Golden Boy. Another lightly raced 4-year-old, he is 3 for 6 in his career.

The son of Jersey Town has a right to be much better at age 4 than he was last year. In his yearly bow on May 18, Company’s Dream dueled from the inside and was beaten a neck as the longest shot on the board. It was a deceptively strong effort and something even better seems within reach.

Another who adds intrigue to Sunday’s stakes race is Perfect Dude. Now an 8-year-old, Perfect Dude won a maiden race at Emerald in 2019 and later that season won the Seattle Slew Stakes. The Blaine Wright trainee more recently sizzled in allowance company at Sunland Park, covering 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:14.03 on March 15 while earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 90.

Rounding out the field are Coastal Kid, trained by Alexis Silva-Martinez, and Mongolian Memory, trained by Scott Tubbs.

The first race is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Pacific.

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