Puhich, Waters agressively spot Executive Chef in Governor's
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Trainer Blaine Wright entered three horses in the June 21 Budweiser Stakes at Emerald Downs, two of which were owned by the partnership of John and Janine Maryanski and Gail and Gerald Schneider.
One of those horses, Executive Chef, was scratched to give his owners a chance to win two races. He wound up running third as the heavy favorite in a 6 1/2-furlong allowance with an optional-claiming condition on June 27. In the six-furlong Budweiser, Si That Tiger, owned by the Maryanskis and Schneiders, finished second to stablemate Tax Code.
Executive Chef, a 7-year-old gelding, was entered for the $40,000 tag on June 27. Trainer Mike Puhich and owner Mike Waters, pounced.
“Blaine probably thought nobody was crazy enough to claim a 7-year-old for $40,000,” said Puhich.
The two Mikes hadn’t been very active since 2024, a year in which Puhich was hospitalized with a life-threatening liver disease. He’s since recovered and started training again, something that motivated Waters to get back in action as well.
“Mike Waters and I go way back. I was his first trainer,” said Puhich. “When I got sick, he pretty much got out of the game. When I started to come back, he said, ‘If you find something, it would help me get started again.’ ”
Puhich found Executive Chef, who’s been aggressively entered in Sunday’s 6 1/2-furlong Governor’s Stakes, one of six $50,000 stakes on an 11-race card that gets underway at 1:50 p.m. Pacific. Executive Chef will face last year’s Governor’s winner, Slew’s Tiz Whiz; fellow stakes winners Tax Code, Si That Tiger, and He’s Not Talking; stakes-placed Creative Om; and the wildly overmatched maiden Catch a Breeze.
“If anybody else had him beside Blaine, I probably wouldn’t have claimed him,” Puhich said of Executive Chef. “I mean that as a compliment. He’s a great horseman and he’s managed this horse awesome. He’s a 7-year-old going on 4. He’s as good as any of the horses he’s in there with, in my opinion. If he’s competitive in here, he’s a perfect [Longacres] Mile horse.”
Legislators Stakes
Puhich also has the Canadian import Someday Lady entered in the Washington State Legislators Stakes, a 6 1/2-furlong affair for fillies and mares. A three-time stakes winner at Hastings, she was no factor in her Emerald debut, a May 25 allowance, finishing a distant fifth behind Aloha Breeze, the reigning Emerald horse of the meet, Precise Timing, Stay Sassy, and Saleen G T, all of whom she’ll face again here.
That May 25 effort was Someday Lady’s first for Puhich, and the trainer admits his attempt to have the 4-year-old filly taken back for a late run was a failed experiment. Worse yet, Puhich said she got stung three times by a horsefly right before the race, which sidelined her for a couple of weeks as her sutures healed.
Her three works since have been so good that Puhich supplemented her into the stakes and is targeting the 1 1/16-mile Emerald Distaff on Aug. 16 for the daughter of Cairo Prince.
“She’s definitely going to do better around two turns,” said Puhich. “She has a lot of natural speed and can run all day.”
That might not make a difference against Aloha Breeze, a 6 1/2-length winner over last year’s Distaff winner, Stay Sassy, and Saleen G T, in the June 21 Hastings Stakes. The 6-year-old Aloha Breeze has 12 wins from 17 career starts at Emerald.
“You just hope she doesn’t have her best day and we do,” said Frank Lucarelli, who trains Saleen G T. “It’s kind of hard to chase that one around here.”
Angie C.
Lucarelli does some of his best work with 2-year-olds, and he has a pair for each of Sunday’s 5 1/2-furlong juvenile stakes.
Parade of Dreams and Twitching will each make their second start in the Angie C. for fillies. Neither made much of an impact first out, but Lucarelli isn’t concerned.
“Babies, some get a race and they improve so much,” said Lucarelli. “I’ve got races in my horses and some good works in to tighten them since.”
King County Express
In the King County Express, for 2-year-old colts and geldings, Lucarelli has entered second-timers Harbor of Hope, second in his June 28 debut at five furlongs, and Epic in Time, who was fourth in the same race.
“They’ll run better,” predicted Lucarelli. “Epic in Time didn’t break very good and he was checking. I was very happy with his race considering he didn’t get away good. The other colt showed a lot of good speed and got outrun to the wire.”
Among the more serious contenders in the seven-horse field are Ziwhat, from the barn of Emerald’s all-time winningest stakes trainer, Tom Wenzel, and the Wyoming shipper Caps and Carnage. Trained by Dru Hall, Caps and Carnage has never trailed in winning all three of his races – two of them stakes – by a combined 32 lengths.
“He’s a laid-back colt who sleeps all day,” Hall told Daily Racing Form’s Steve Andersen. “You lead him over there and he runs big. We’re lucky that way.”
◗ A pair of one-mile, gender-restricted stakes for 3-year-olds, the Seattle Slew and Kent Stakes, will close out Sunday’s action.
– additional reporting by Steve Andersen
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