Reservoir seeks spark with addition of blinkers

Reservoir heads a field of eight $25,000 claimers in Sunday’s 5 1/2-furlong feature race at Emerald Downs.

Trained by Blaine Wright, Reservoir was a beaten favorite under similar conditions four weeks ago and will race with blinkers for the first time as she looks to make amends.

“She ran okay last time,” Wright said. “Hard to make ground up at [Emerald] sometimes. Added a blinker just to see if it sparks her a bit.”

The 4-year-old daughter of Straight Fire was bumped solidly at the start before racing just behind the leaders and finishing with mild interest in her Emerald Downs debut on May 14.

Jockey Kevin “Radke got a chance to know her last time,” Wright said.

Two starts ago, in just the second race of her career, Reservoir finished fifth in a starter allowance at Golden Gate. That race has become a productive key race from which a trio of runners returned to win their next starts. The next-out winners validated the Beyer Speed Figures earned in the race, and the 65 assigned to Reservoir that day would make her a formidable foe Sunday.

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Among Sunday’s opposition are three runners who faced Reservoir in their latest starts – Donne Cattive, Signature Colors, and Western Dream.

Donne Cattive finished in front of Reservoir when they met May 14 in what was Donne Cattive’s first start of 2023. The daughter of Blame, trained by Faustino Patin, has every right to improve with the prep under her girth.

Signature Colors broke outwardly to bump with Reservoir at the start before forcing the early pace and being narrowly outfinished by Reservoir when fourth on May 14. Signature Colors campaigned all winter at Turf Paradise and was among the more fit entrants in her last race.

Also in Sunday’s feature is Princess Payton, a daughter of ultra-fast Unified out of Princess Kennedy, winner of the 2016 Washington Oaks at Emerald Downs. Princess Payton, trained by Tom Wenzel, has worked well this spring but finished a nonthreatening fifth, beaten 10 1/4 lengths, in her yearly bow.

A longshot that merits consideration is Queensboro, trained by Scott Freeman. The 4-year-old Verrazano filly faced maidens in all three of her previous races and now makes her first start of 2023. Freeman has finished second with each of his last two starters coming off layoffs of more than 180 days, and Queensboro has plenty of potential for improvement with expected maturity since winning a maiden race in September.

Queensboro has proven to be adept at setting or stalking the pace, and leading jockey Luis Negron has been named to ride Sunday.

The weather is expected to be partly cloudy, with temperatures in the mid-70s for a card slated to begin at 2 p.m. Pacific.

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