Strawberry Dawn prepping against boys

AUBURN, Wash. – With no suitable fillies-only race on the immediate horizon, Dan Markle decided to try his promising 3-year-old filly Strawberry Dawn against the boys. Naturally, it’s one he hopes he doesn’t regret.

Strawberry Dawn drew post 3 and will be ridden by Felipe Valdez in Sunday’s seventh race, a $22,575 no-conditions allowance at 5 1/2 furlongs. Markle is using the race as a prep for the $50,000 Seattle Handicap on June 1.

“I’m hesitant to put this filly in with the boys because they might shred my trainer’s license,” Markle said this week. “But getting another race into her would be significant because the stakes race isn’t until the first of June.”

Strawberry Dawn powered to an 8 1/2-length victory in her season debut April 13, overwhelming four rivals in a first-level allowance at 5 1/2 furlongs. After settling into stride down the backstretch, Strawberry Dawn surged through an opening along the rail and kicked away while covering the final three-sixteenths in a quick 17.81 seconds.

“She ran lights out,” Markle said. “It was lucky to get that little seam on the inside and shoot up in there, but she ran a really good race. She’s a nice little filly. She’s got really good reflexes and a nice way of going. She’s got a nice pedigree.”

A homebred for Sue and Tim Spooner, Strawberry Dawn is by Tribal Rule from the Pioneering mare Ruby Dawn. After an easy maiden victory in July, Strawberry Dawn finished second in a pair of stakes races for fillies before an off-the-board finish against males in the Gottstein Futurity to cap her 2-year-old year.

Markle had hoped for another allowance prep against fillies before the Seattle Handicap, but the race he targeted attracted just two entrants – Strawberry Dawn and multiple stakes winner Chu and You. Hence, another try against the boys.

“She’s ready to run back,” Markle said. “She’s doing as good as she can be doing.”

Assessment shows his class

Assessment, once a leading handicap horse at Emerald, had fallen on hard times in recent years, ceding much of his speed to injuries or Father Time. So, when the 10-year-old captured a $15,000 claiming sprint last weekend, trainer Howard Belvoir was just as surprised as anyone.

“He had been training terrible,” Belvoir said. “In fact, he tied up three days before. His muscles locked up real bad, kind of like a charley horse. I was going to scratch him, but I hate to do that, and he came out of it, so we went ahead. It’s good on him for getting a win.”

Assessment rallied strongly through the stretch to prevail by one length under old friend Gallyn Mitchell, running six furlongs in 1:10.23 on a sloppy track. His Beyer Speed Figure of 68 was not vintage Assessment – he routinely posted 90 Beyers in his heyday – but Belvoir certainly wasn’t complaining. The victory snapped a 21-race losing streak dating to 2010.

Belvoir recently took ownership of Assessment from Diane Tice, who had owned the horse with her husband, Lou Tice, who died in 2012. But what does one do with a horse who is nearing his sell-by date?

“You could make him a show horse or something,” Belvoir said. “But he likes to run, and I like old horses. Diane had so much other things going on, she just didn’t have time. I didn’t want to see the horse go anywhere, so I took the horse; she made me a good deal.”

Assessment has won 10 of 53 starts, with earnings of $513,780, numbers that would be flashier if not for a succession of health woes. He sustained an ankle injury following his Longacres Mile victory in 2009. After Belvoir got him back up to speed the following year, he had another setback in 2011, shortly after finishing third in a minor stakes race at Hollywood Park while under the care of Belvoir’s son, Vann.

“He came back from that ankle, it was a tough injury, and then he got a suspensory when I sent him to Vann,” Belvoir said. “Then we brought him back. He’s been through some things that most horses would not have handled. This horse has been through the wars.”

Now that he has found a comfort zone in the claiming ranks, Assessment will stay there, Belvoir said. His days as a stakes runner are over, barring the unforeseen.

“He’s doing good, he’s just old,” Belvoir said. “He’s got a right to get cheap. But I won’t cheapen him up much more than that.”

◗ The undefeated 4-year-old filly Stopshoppingdebbie is on track to make her 2014 debut when Emerald kicks off its stakes schedule next Sunday with the $50,000 Hastings Handicap at six furlongs. The Tom Wenzel trainee – 5 for 5, with four stakes victories – worked a slow four furlongs Monday, her latest spin in a workout regimen that started in early March.