Rising Star Dutton points to Gottstein Futurity

Trainer Howard Belvoir has a star in the making at Emerald Downs with Dutton, a 2-year-old who displayed great speed when he romped by nine lengths in his debut in the $36,000 WTBOA Lads on Aug. 27. He set quick interior fractions of 21.74 and 44.05 seconds on his way to posting a final time of 1:16.25 for 6 1/2 furlongs. He paid $17.80.

In his 14-length blowout in a first-level allowance race going six furlongs last Friday Dutton set faster fractions, 21.38 and 43.91 seconds, and his Beyer Speed Figure increased by 10 points from 60-70. The final time was 1:09.01 and nobody was surprised as he paid $2.20.

The Washington-bred son of Noosito was ridden by Jennifer Whitaker in both races.

“He’s fast,” Belvoir said. “In Friday’s race there was other speed and I was afraid someone was going to go after him. But he was gone before they knew what hit them. Jennifer just sat on him and he never changed leads in the stretch.”

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Dutton is being pointed to the $75,000 Gottstein Futurity, in which he will be asked to carry his substantial speed around two turns in the 1 1/16-mile race. Belvoir likes the way Dutton is developing and is confident he is up to the task.

“He sets fast fractions, but just keeps running,” Belvoir said. “I think he could come off the pace if we wanted him to. I was a little worried about his temperament at first, but he’s really settled down. He’s certainly improved since the first time we were hoping to run him.”

Belvoir was referring to when Dutton was scratched after acting up at the gate in the King County Express on July 30.

Belvoir, who has trained a lot of stars in his career, is excited about Dutton’s potential.

“If you can’t get excited about the buck you shouldn’t be hunting deer,” he said. “I’ve been doing this a long time and if I can’t get excited about having a horse like Dutton I should not be in the business. It’s fun.”

Wednesday’s feature is a $10,000 starter race with a $15,000 claiming option.

Semi Sweet and Gazing are the main players in the one-mile race for fillies and mares that drew eight horses. It goes as race 8 on the 10-race card that begins at 2:23 p.m. Pacific.

Trained by Manny Ortiz, Semi Sweet finished a half-length in front of Gazing when she was the runner-up to Fortune’s Freude in a similar race on Sept. 3.
The Frank Lucarelli-trained Gazing edged Semi Sweet three-quarters of a length when she won under the same circumstances on Aug. 20.

However, Semi Sweet easily handled Gazing when they finished one-two on July 23.

Flip a coin.