AUBURN, Wash. -- Royal Moses, a beaten favorite in her last start, will try to make amends Sunday in the Irish Day Handicap at Emerald Downs. But after finishing more than eight lengths behind the speedy Exclusive Diva in the Seattle Handicap, even Royal Moses’s trainer, Tim Harder, is skeptical she can close the entire gap in the season’s first route stakes for 3-year-old fillies.
Exclusive Diva stormed to an 8 1/2-length victory in the Seattle and finished full of run. She covered the final sixteenth in 5.85 seconds, leaving the fast-closing Royal Moses in her distant wake.