Top Quality, Daz Lin Dawn may have date in Washington Oaks

Top Quality and Daz Lin Dawn came out of their dominating wins last Sunday in excellent shape and could settle the argument about which horse is the best 3-year-old filly in the Pacific Northwest in the $75,000 Washington Oaks on July 23.

Daz Lin Dawn, trained by Nancy Betts, was an easy seven-length winner of the $50,000 Emerald Downs Stakes at Hastings.

Making her first start at Emerald for trainer Blaine Wright, Top Quality drew off in the stretch to win the $50,000 Irish Day by 3 3/4 lengths.

It was Daz Lin Dawn’s third stakes win at the Hastings meet, with those sprint victories coming by a combined 22 1/2 lengths. Betts isn’t concerned about the daughter of Popular stretching out to 1 1/8 miles if she runs in the Oaks.

“We are certainly considering the Oaks for her next start,” Betts said. “Her race Sunday was like a workout for her, and she only ran for about three furlongs. She’s doing extremely well, and she’s really matured since she ran in the Fantasy.”

Betts was referring to Daz Lin Dawn’s runner-up finish going 1 1/16 miles in her only route attempt, the $75,000 Fantasy at Hastings on Oct. 10.

Daz Lin Dawn just might thrive at Emerald. At more than 17 hands, she is a large filly, and going from a bullring to a one-mile track should work in her favor.

Top Quality was making just her fourth career start in the one-mile Irish Day and appears to have a bright future.

“She is doing really well, and we’re keeping her here to run in the Washington Oaks,” Wright said. “If she runs well, we’ll probably take her up to Hastings for the B.C. Oaks.”

The $100,000 British Columbia Oaks is scheduled for Sept. 9, the same day as the Grade 3, $150,000 British Columbia Derby.

Wright’s best horse, Alert Bay, is running in the $100,000 American Stakes at Santa Anita on Tuesday. Wright said if Alert Bay comes out of the one-mile race on turf in good shape, he could start in the Grade 3, $200,000 Longacres Mile on Aug. 13. Alert Bay finished fourth in the Mile last year and third in 2015.

“We’ll see how he runs Tuesday and go from there,” he said.

Alert Bay has won 14 races and earned $1.24 million for owner Peter Redekop.

◗ Wright thinks he has a good chance of winning the fifth race at Emerald on Saturday with Heroes for Ghosts. The horse is coming off back-to-back wins at Emerald and figures to be one of the favorites in the one-mile, $5,000 starter optional-claiming race for 3-year-olds and up.

Wright owns the 5-year-old son of City Zip.

“I got him pretty cheap with the idea to win some races at Emerald,” he said. “He seems to like it here.”

Post time for the first of seven races is 2 p.m. Pacific.