Riser facing Barkley, Mach One Rules in Governor's Stakes

The last time Riser ran at Emerald Downs he took them all the way in the $75,000 Emerald Downs Derby. Trainer Blaine Wright is looking to find out how he stacks up to the top older horses at Emerald, most notably Barkley and Mach One Rules, when he runs in the $50,000 Governor’s on Sunday.

The six-furlong dash drew five horses and goes as race 6 on a nine-race card that begins at 2 p.m. Pacific.

Following his front-running win in the Emerald Derby, Riser took them a long way but came up a neck short in the Grade 3 British Columbia Derby at Hastings. He was turned out for the year and, curiously, he showed up in the Grade 3 Twin Spires Turf Sprint at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Oaks Day on May 4.

He showed his usual speed in the five-furlong race over firm turf, but couldn’t keep up late and finished eighth.

“He made it exciting for a while,” Wright said. Owner “Jared [Chappell] had business in Kentucky and wanted to race Riser at Churchill Downs. I’m willing to try anything, and since he was well prepared I said why not? It didn’t help that he got stuck in a three-horse duel.”

Wright said the plan all along was to bring Riser back to the Pacific Northwest to find out how he fit with the stakes horses at Emerald and Hastings. His first stop was at Golden Gate Fields, where he worked twice and earned bullets both times.

“It was a lot easier to ship him to San Francisco instead of Seattle,” Wright said from Golden Gate. “He worked great here and couldn’t be doing any better. It’s a tough spot. I’ve watched Barkley and Mach One Rules run at Emerald the last three years and obviously I have a lot of respect for them.”

Riser, owned by Chappell Alpine Farms LLC, will be ridden from post 3 by Northern California-based jockey Juan Hernandez.

Barkley is coming off a three-quarter-length win over his archrival Mach One Rules in a $50,000 optional claimer May 13. Trained by Howard Belvoir, he has faced Mach One Rules 10 times and emerged the winner seven times. In four of his wins, the margin was a head or a neck. Last year, he rallied to edge Mach One Rules by a neck in the Governor’s.

Mach One Rules may have lost the Governor’s, but he went on to win three of the next four stakes for older horses at Emerald. His only loss in the streak was a runner-up finish behind Gold Rush Dancer in the Grade 3 Longacres Mile.

The Frank Lucarelli-trained son of Harbor the Gold may have needed the race when he couldn’t hold off Barkley on May 13. He was coming off a nose loss in the $51,625 Oakland Stakes on Nov. 18 at Golden Gate Fields.

So Lucky and Dedicated to You complete the field.