White-hot Wright expects big effort from Access This in Auburn Handicap

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Trainer Blaine Wright is on fire at the Emerald Downs meet, but he is taking his hot start in stride.

“It’s been fun, but I know it isn’t going to last,” said Wright. “Most of my horses are fit from running, and because the meet was moved up this year, they have a big edge over the local horses.”

Going into this weekend, Wright had won with 11 of his 19 starters. He won the only stakes race at the meet with Invested Prospect, who led every step of the way in the $50,000 Seattle Stakes for 3-year-old fillies last Sunday. He is looking for a good effort from Access This in the $50,000 Auburn Handicap this Sunday.

Access This won two of his four starts on Tapeta at Golden Gate Fields and will be making his first start on dirt in the Auburn. He is coming off a win in an optional $40,000 claiming race April 3.

“After you win a first-level race in Northern California, it’s tough to find a race,” said Wright. “They have a good stakes program for 3-year-olds at Emerald, and hopefully he fits. There seems to be a lot of nice 3-year-olds here, though.”

Wright likes the way Access This handled the local surface when he worked five furlongs in 59.80 seconds last Monday.

“He worked awfully good on the dirt,” said Wright. “He’s a nice horse. The only time he ran a poor race, he fell apart when a 25 miles-an-hour wind hit him in the paddock.”

Wright is pleased with the way the undefeated Invested Prospect came out of her sharp win in the Seattle Stakes. It was her first start this year, and the 75 Beyer Speed Figure she earned is more than 20 points higher than the figures she received for her two wins last year.

“She came back a little tired but has bounced back quickly,” said Wright. “The next race here is a mile, so we might take her up to Hastings, where their next stakes for 3-year-old fillies is 6 1/2 furlongs.”

The race at Hastings is the $50,000 Emerald Downs on June 5.

If Wright does head north, Invested Prospect will run into a pretty nice filly in Snuggles. Trained by Dino Condilenios, Snuggles hasn’t finished worse than second while running exclusively in stakes races. She closed out her juvenile campaign with a win going 1 1/16 miles in the $75,000 Fantasy, and she looked great in winning the $50,000 Ross McLeod while sprinting last Sunday. The 74 Beyer she received was her career best.

“I had a lot of confidence she was going to run well,“ said Condilenios. “She came out of it in great shape, so we’ll bring her back in the Emerald Downs.”

Snuggles forced the pace set by her stablemate Omi, who finished third. Condilenios has two more quality 3-year-old fillies, Chianti and Hippie.

“I’ll probably run one of them with Snuggles in the Emerald,” he said. “Hopefully, we can get an allowance race for the other two.”