Tipitat spoils Aloha Breeze's perfect season with Muckleshoot Tribal Distaff triumph
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No horse older than 3 won a stakes race at Emerald Downs on Sunday. Granted, two of those winners were in races restricted to 2-year-olds, but Tipitap became the first 3-year-old to ever win the Muckleshoot Tribal Distaff, mounting a furious stretch drive to catch 1-2 favorite Aloha Breeze and prevent Emerald's reigning horse of the meet from notching an undefeated 2026 campaign.
Had Aloha Breeze won, trainer Tom Wenzel would have swept all four of Sunday's $50,000 stakes. As it stands, he took 3 of 4, winning all three races for owner George Todaro and tying his own track record for stakes wins in one day. Wenzel is the all-time winningest stakes trainer at Emerald Downs.
Wenzel trainees swept the two juvenile stakes, with Make Mo Mine ($8.56) upsetting Mattie Goincoastal, a two-time stakes winner, in the Muckleshoot Juvenile Fillies to kick of the stakes action in race 7. Make Mo Mine, who made a strong move at the top of the stretch under Frank Alvarado, covered 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:17.75. Another Wenzel trainee, Playa Luna, finished 3 3/4 lengths back in second, and it was 1 1/2 lengths back to Champagne Delight in third.
In the Distaff, 6-year-old Aloha Breeze ran right to the lead and looked poised to win her fifth straight race, as she led by four lengths through a half-mile in 44.89 seconds. But Tipitap ($14.50), a daughter of the excellent closer Tacitus, found an inside lane in the stretch and rolled on to cover the 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.02 under Blake Nunnally, beating Aloha Breeze by 1 1/4 lengths. It was another two lengths back to Precise Timing in third.
Trained by Blaine Wright, Tipitap's smooth trip was a welcome departure from the Washington Oaks on Aug. 16, when she overcame multiple trouble spots down the stretch to win by three lengths.
"We won the Oaks and we didn't have the greatest trip," Nunnally said in the winner's circle after the race. "Looking at how she ran in the Oaks, coming back into this race, she had every reason to shoot up and show a little bit more. She's just a phenomenal horse. Even when she gets in trouble, she can make it out of it."
The Wenzel-Todaro tandem had three of the seven horses entered in the Muckleshoot Tribal Classic, with the race's lone 3-year-old, Robin Racer, dubbed the least likely of the trio to win on the morning line. But after stablemate Slew's Tiz Whiz scratched several hours before the race, it created an opening for a closer to pick up the pieces in the likely event of a speed duel.
Adios Jojo, the surprise winner of the Aug. 16 Longacres Mile, led through an opening quarter-mile in 22.62 seconds but was pulled up at the five-eighths pole and had to be vanned off after the race. That left 17-1 longshot Rondelito in the lead, which he held gamely until Robin Racer ($7.24), who went off at 5-2, took command in midstretch and completed 1 1/16 miles in 1:41.33 – the fastest time for that distance all year at Emerald.
Rondelito finished a length back in second, and it was another 2 1/2 lengths back to He's Not Talking in third.
"He's improved every race," said his rider, Alvarado, from the winner's circle. "You might see me soon."
Alvarado was referring to where he might wind up after the day's final stakes race, the mile-and-70-yard Gottstein Futurity for 2-year-olds. Riding the Wenzel-trained Gottherizz, he would get close, finishing second. The winner of the race was another Wenzel trainee, Diamond Dasher ($6.44), who went gate to wire in commanding fashion, covering the distance in 1:41.03 and giving jockey Allyssa Morales her first local stakes victory.
Ziwhat finished third, making it a sweep of the top three spots in the Gottstein for the ever-formidable Wenzel-Todaro connection.
Betting handle on the day was $1,639,231. Monday is closing day at Emerald, with the first of eight races set to go off at 1:50 p.m. Pacific Time.
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