Sippin Fire, Gutierrez main attractions Sunday

Sippin Fire will be the star of the show Sunday, the final day of racing this year at Emerald Downs. The 3-year-old gelding by Harbor the Gold will be gunning for his fifth stakes win at the meet in the $100,000 Getaway Stakes for 3-year-olds.

If he is victorious in the 1 1/16-mile Getaway Stakes, he would tie Noosa Beach for the record of most stakes win in a single meet at Emerald.

Sippin Fire isn’t the only star that will be at Emerald on Sunday. Two-time Kentucky Derby winner Mario Gutierrez has mounts in three of the four stakes. He will ride Canadian Game in the Getaway Stakes, Royal Privacy in the $25,000 Pete Pedersen overnight stakes for 3-year-olds and up, and Forty Six Carats in the $50,000 Gottstein Futurity. The $25,000 Fan Appreciation overnight stakes for fillies and mares is the fourth stakes.

Royal Privacy is owned and trained by Glen Todd, who races under the stable name North American Thoroughbred Racing Company. Todd also trains Canadian Game for Paul Reddam. A colt by Curlin, Canadian Game is coming off a third-place finish in the Grade 3, $150,000 British Columbia Derby on Sept. 8 at Hastings.

Todd is like a second father to Gutierrez and has been his mentor since he arrived at Hastings in 2006. Since then, Gutierrez’s mounts have earned more than $46.5 million.

“I think he is as good a rider as anyone, and I am so happy for all the success he’s had,” Todd said. “It is always special to have him ride for me. I am really looking forward to Sunday.”

The same years Gutierrez won the Kentucky Derby – with I’ll Have Another in 2012 and Nyquist in 2016 – he won the Grade 3 Longacres Mile at Emerald with Taylor Said and Point Piper.

“I really enjoy riding at Emerald,” Gutierrez said. “It is a great track, and whenever I am able to ride there it gives me a chance to catch up with a lot of friends.”

Gutierrez said he was starting to get excited about the Breeders’ Cup, which will be held at Churchill Downs on Nov. 2 and 3. He rides Pavel in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic. Pavel was no match for Accelerate when he was the runner-up in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar, but the only time he ran at Churchill Downs he was an impressive winner of the Stephen Foster, also a Grade 1 race.

“Pavel really loved the surface at Churchill Downs,” Gutierrez said. “I also have some nice 2-year-olds to ride.”

Pavel is trained by Doug O’Neill, who said he is going to enter Palladium in the Gottstein. Evin Roman will ride Palladium in the 1 1/16-mile race. Roman, no stranger to Emerald, won the Longacres Mile aboard Gold Rush Dancer in 2017. Palladium is coming off a runner-up finish in a starter race with a $50,000 claiming option going 5 1/2 furlongs on Sept. 8 at Del Mar.