Stablemates Perfect Dude and Rally Cat to continue rivalry

Perfect Dude and Rally Cat came out of their one-two finish in the $50,000 Seattle Slew Stakes on Sunday at Emerald Downs in good shape and are being pointed to the $50,000 Muckleshoot Derby on Aug. 11, trainer Blaine Wright said. The Muckleshoot Derby is one of three supporting stakes for the Grade 3, $200,000 Longacres Mile.

Perfect Dude and Rally Cat were stretching out to a middle distance for the first time in the 1 1/16-mile Seattle Slew. Perfect Dude shouldn’t have any trouble negotiating the 1 1/8-mile distance of the Muckleshoot Derby. In the Seattle Slew, he went six wide around the first turn and five wide while moving into serious contention on the second turn.

“They both came back a little tired,” Wright said Wednesday morning. “It was their first route, and they ran hard. They are starting to get a little more peppy and will probably go back to the track tomorrow.”

Wright has won seven of the 10 stakes at the meet and came close to making it eight with heavily favored Mucho Amor in the co-featured $50,000 Irish Day Stakes on Sunday.

If the 3-year-old daughter of Mucho Macho Man hadn’t raced erratically in the stretch she probably would have won the 1 1/16-mile race. Despite her antics, she lost by only a neck to Twirling Devon.

Mucho Amor was ridden by Juan Hernandez.

“Juan said she was shying from the whip,” Wright said. “Next time, we are going with more blinker and less whip.”

Next time will be in the $50,000 Washington Oaks, which is part of the Mile Day card. Mucho Amor will be wearing blinkers for the first time since she finished fourth in her second start in the Grade 2 Adirondack Stakes last Aug. 11 at Saratoga. She also wore them when she won her debut in a maiden special weight race at Keeneland.

The Manny Ortiz-trained Twirling Devon also is being pointed to the Oaks.

With Kevin Orozco aboard, she finished with a rush from along the rail to nip Mucho Amor late. Orozco also rode Perfect Dude.

Twirling Devon, who won the $30,000 Arizona Juvenile Fillies on Dec. 29 at Turf Paradise, was coming off a fourth-place finish in the $50,000 Kent Stakes on June 9 at Emerald. Ortiz was a bit surprised that the Florida-bred daughter of Twirling Candy paid $32.60.

Senoradiablo, also trained by Ortiz, finished fourth at 24-1.

“I couldn’t believe they were such high odds, so I bet a little on both of them,” he said.

Wales just keeps winning

Leading jockey Gary Wales has won at least one race on 26 consecutive days of racing at Emerald. If he doesn’t do it earlier in the card, he should continue the streak Friday when he rides La Waun in a $10,000 claimer. The seven-race card begins at 6:30 p.m. Pacific.

La Waun, trained by Vince Gibson, was an easy 5 1/2-length front-running winner going six furlongs in a $10,000 claiming race July 7. He will be tough to run down Friday in the 5 1/2-furlong dash for 3-year-olds and up that drew six horses.