Stryker Phd to be strong favorite in Longacres Mile

AUBURN, Wash. – Nominations for the Grade 3, $200,000 Longacres Mile came out this week, and a glance at the list of 25 confirmed what had become increasingly apparent over the past few weeks: Stryker Phd, the leading handicap horse at Emerald Downs and unbeaten in two starts this year, likely will be a heavy favorite Aug. 24 in the 79th running of the Northwest’s richest race.

Stryker Phd has continued to train forwardly for Larry Ross. The 2013 Longacres Mile runner-up worked five furlongs in 58 seconds last Saturday, the second quick five-furlong drill for Stryker Phd since his victory July 20 in the Mt. Rainier Handicap. He is expected to be the highweight when weights are announced Saturday. Entries will be drawn Wednesday.

One of the leading Mile hopefuls fell by the wayside shortly after the list of nominees rolled off the printer. Commander, a titan in the Canadian prairies, will remain at Northlands Park in Edmonton, where he was scheduled to compete Friday in the $50,000 Westerner Handicap. Owner Glen Todd still could start as many as three horses in the Mile, though the three pale in comparison to Todd’s 2012 Longacres Mile winner, Taylor Said.

Of the 25 nominees, eight made their most recent start in California, but by Thursday, only a couple of the eight were expected to compete in the Longacres Mile. Southern California-based trainer Mark Glatt nominated Boyett, who finished fourth in the restricted Wickerr Stakes at Del Mar in his last start and is owned by Oregon horseman Rodney Orr.

“I don’t think any of the others are coming,” Glatt said Thursday from Del Mar of Mile nominees such as Handsome Mike, who is closing in on $1 million in earnings for trainer Doug O’Neill, and Home Run Kitten, a David Hofmans-trained 3-year-old who has made all but one of his seven starts on turf.

A berth in the Longacres Mile would be big for Orr yet not necessarily practical for Boyett. If he stays in California, Glatt said, Boyett would start Aug. 23 in the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap, a 1 3/8-mile test on grass.

“We’re considering it,” Glatt said of the Mile. “He’s never won a stakes, so he’s got to be able to get into the race. We have to see the weights, but I think he’s fast enough to win the race. The biggest challenge is that he’s a horse who has gotten accustomed to running on the turf, and what happens when they get going well like he has, they don’t always translate back to a hard dirt surface again. And there are some faster horses nominated, so he’d have to be in that second flight and take dirt in his face, which he hasn’t had to do. All of that is being considered.”

Trainer Bob Hess Jr. is considering the Mile for Blue Tone, an impressive allowance winner at Del Mar in his first start of 2014. A decision will come early in the week, Hess said Thursday, after he puts Blue Tone through his paces.

“I need to watch him work this weekend, and then we’ll work on getting him up there, depending on how he works,” Hess said. “There’s another option here about a week later but not for nearly as much money. I’d love to get him up there and get him on the dirt because it’s his best surface.”

Blue Tone has been lightly raced, with eight career starts midway through his 5-year-old year, but Hess said his recent allowance victory, for which he earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 91, was a beauty. It could set him up well for a crack at the Longacres Mile, a race Hess said he always has wanted to win.

“It was pretty darn effortless,” Hess said. “He galloped around there. He has a high cruising speed. He did everything we wanted him to do.”

One horse who definitely will start in the Longacres Mile is Jebrica, whom Todd claimed for $50,000 out of his last start Aug. 2 at Emerald Downs. A multiple stakes winner with more than $325,000 in earnings, Jebrica finished fourth in the 2013 Longacres Mile behind the front-running winner, Herbie D.

“Glen has always loved that horse,” trainer Mike Puhich said of Jebrica. “Of all the horses we nominated, we know he’s the one who can get the trip. Last year, he came from dead last to run fourth in the Mile. If somebody stubs their toe, he’s going to be right there.”

Puhich said he was trying to recruit Aaron Gryder to ride Jebrica. Mario Gutierrez will have the riding assignment on Mr. Bowling, Puhich said, and Isaias Enriquez will ride Prohibition, a Todd-owned newcomer whose last start was at Belmont Park in late May. Puhich said Mr. Bowling has been training “like a monster” and that Prohibition “can be right there with these horses,” yet the trainer was quick to acknowledge the obvious.

“Stryker Phd, if he stays healthy, he’s a serious racehorse,” Puhich said. “He’s a spectacular racehorse. I think if you pick the right stake at just about any track, he can jump up and beat you. He’s definitely the horse to beat in the Mile.”