Seattle Slew Handicap, graveyard of favorites

AUBURN, Wash. – Del Rio Harbor tops the list of eight horses nominated for Sunday’s $50,000 Seattle Slew Handicap at Emerald Downs. The four-time stakes winner is certain to attract heavy interest in the betting, yet to prevail in the 1 1/16-mile Seattle Slew, he’ll have to overcome a daunting trend: The past nine favorites have tasted defeat in the meeting’s second two-turn stakes for 3-year-olds.

Trainer Doris Harwood is responsible for four of the eight Seattle Slew nominees, with Del Rio Harbor and Noosito her leading pair. Del Rio Harbor is coming off a 2 1/2-length victory in the one-mile Coca-Cola Handicap on June 22, a visually impressive effort that stamps him as the obvious leader of his division at Emerald. Del Rio Harbor earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 85 for his Coca-Cola victory and is unbeaten in two route attempts.

Noosito, the runner-up in the Coca-Cola, has two previous victories over his barnmate, including a five-length romp in the Auburn Handicap on May 25 in which he zipped 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:14.71.

Harwood, Emerald Downs’s all-time leader with 63 stakes wins, also nominated Kenai King and Trick or Retreat. All four Harwood runners are Washington-breds by Harbor the Gold.

Others nominated to the Seattle Slew are Charlie Thomas, a fast-closing third in the Coca-Cola in his Emerald Downs debut for trainer Dan Markle; Off the Top, who finished second in the 1 1/16-mile Chris Loseth Handicap at Hastings on July 1; Slice of Red; and Stikine Slough.

The Seattle Slew is the final major stepping-stone to the $65,000 Emerald Downs Derby on Aug. 10.

◗ Stopshoppingdebbie earned a career-best Beyer of 87 for her victory Sunday in the one-mile Boeing Handicap for fillies and mares. She covered the distance in a stakes-record 1:34.20 to prevail by 2 3/4 lengths and run her unbeaten record to 8 for 8. Among her growing list of accomplishments, Stopshoppingdebbie equaled Ropersandwranglers’s track record with her seventh consecutive stakes victory.

Stopshoppingdebbie defeated just three rivals, including two of her Tom Wenzel-trained stablemates, and is quickly running out of competition at Emerald Downs. She is likely to start next in the $65,000 Emerald Distaff on Aug. 24, followed, owner Jerre Paxton has said, by a possible fall campaign in Southern California.

Stopshoppingdebbie earned $27,500 for her Boeing victory, running her earnings to $211,273.