5/21/2025
(Auburn, WA) This week’s Track Wire runsdown the leading riders, what’s happening with the trainers and how the owners are doing. We’ll have a re-cap of Teacher’s Appreciation weekend and the Teacher Races, the School Mascot Race, check in on the Betting Window and the Claim Report. Let’s get to it!
Teacher’s Appreciation Weekend
Teacher’s were treated to their own week-end and it was capped off with the Teacher’s Races on Sunday. It all began with the School Mascot race where in the end two schools participated with two mascots representing Kent-Meridian High School and the Mascot from Lindbergh High School. Emerald Downs’ mascot ED also participated.
Lindbergh’s Tony the Eagle took the early lead and never let up cruising to a big win. Kent Meridian had a pair of Royal Lions run and they battled it out with ED for the place and show.
Tony the Eagle flies to the finish line
In the women’s Teacher Race, a field size of 29 broke from the Enerald Downs starting gate under the watchful eye of starter Mark Gibson. The winner was Toni Bylin of Glacier Park school in the Tahoma school district where she is a special education teacher.
Glacier Park’s Toni Bylin gets the win!
In the men’s Teacher Race Tony Madeo was back to defend his championship from last year. Only 9 men entered and Madeo got a great break and held off the competition to score his second straight Teacher dash Championship. Madeo is a 2nd grade teacher at Cedar Valley elementary in the Kent school district.
Tony Madeo repeats his Championship!
Thanks to all the Teacher’s who participated, seems like the men need to up the participation though as the women were out in force. The winner’s got a trophy and prize for their victories.
Justin Evans makes his return and 11-year-old is Perfect!
On Sunday, 11-year-old Surprisinglyperfect won the 1st race and was the 1st race of the year that 2-time defending training Champion Justin Evans had entered a horse this season. Evans also had Bedrock in the 1-mile race.
Surprisinglyperfect with Kevin Krigger aboard sat off the pace and then uncorked around the far turn and built up 1/2 length lead at the top of the stretch and had to hold off his stablemate Bedrock with Alex Cruz. Evans begins the season with an exacta finish taking 1st and 2nd. These were also the first starts for the defending Owner Champions Rakoczy Racing and Justin Evans.
ESN talked with Evans about gettng back to Emerald Downs after another great year down at Turf Paradise. He also talked about the competition this year is going to be fierce and that he’s up for the challenge. And couldn’t say enough about his special 11-year-old wonder in Surprisinglyperfect.
ESN talks with Justin Evans
Surprisinglyperfect is now 25-16-14 from 93 starts for a 27% win rate and top 3 finish mark of 59% and has earned $377,361. The Evans exacta did not fool the bettors as Surprisinglyperfect was the favorite at 6-5 and Bedrock the 3rd choice at 4-1 and the $1 exacta paid $9.23. Evans also ran Club Mesquite in the feature race and took 2nd a length behind to finish 1-2-0 from 3 starts. Evans will no doubt be the one still to beat in 2025.
First Double Winner
Moonlight Grey won the final race of the day on day 2, May 3rd as the betting favorite with Alex Cruz aboard. Last Saturday Moonlight Grey went off as the 9-1 third longshot and Cruz was aboard again. Moonlight Grey came from far back to run them all down winning by a neck and became the first horse weith 2 wins on the season.
The interesting thing is that Moonlight Grey was claimed from his 1st race but didn’t change barns. Moonlight Grey was owned by Donnybrook Stable and Randy Penington and trained by Charlie Essex. Joe Crawford dropped the claim for 10k on that day but kept Essex as his trainer so there was no change for Moonlight as she went back to her regular stall.
Crawford and Essex ran Moonlight Grey back in a $15,000 claimer and the gray filly showed everyone she was up for it.
Jockey’s
4 Win Day, Cruz first to quadruple in a day!
Coming into the weekend 5-time defending champion rider Alex Cruz was off to slow start with just 1 win from 4 race days. He trailed leading riders Silvio Amador and Kevin Krigger by 5 as both had 6 wins.
Already we were hearing rumblings that this was going to be the end of Cruz’s reign but someone forgot to tell Cruz. Cruz opened the weekend winning the 1st race on Saturday with Surprise Fashion at 9-5. Followed that up winning the 3rd on Diamond Dee at 5-1, then took the 4th on 8-5 Company’s Dream. Cruz was the first rider with a 4-win day when he came from nearly last to win the 6th race on 9-1 Moonlight Grey.
Cruz couldn’t follow that up on Sunday though placing 2nd 3 times missing by what looked like a nose on Purrfect Moon in the 4th race. The 4 wins quickly moved him right back into contention with 5 wins on the season.
Americano says I can do that too gets picture taken 4 times!
Manny Americano had also been stuck with too many 2nd’s and 3rd’s after the first 5 days and had just 2 wins going into Sunday. Well Manny saw what Alex did and said why not me? Americano trailing the top riders going into Sunday is now tied for 2nd with 6 wins.
Americano got it going in the 3rd winning on 2-1 Gold Coast Girl. In the 6th, Manny used his pace with G G Gilley to pull away in the stretch for the victory at 8-5. Americano then came storming home in the feature race on I’m Noble at 7-2 and completed the 4-win day on 8-5 Red Leader with a wire-to-wire win in the finale.
Double the Fun for Duran!
Jockey Francisco Duran had been a consistant top rider in Northern California for many years and in his 1st season in Auburn he has good days and then misses on others. Duran is tied for 2nd place with 6 wins but he only has wins on 3 of the 6 days. Duran has doubled 3 times this season with another 2 win day on Sunday. Duran took the 2nd race with Louie the First as the 8-5 favorite. Duran and Shelby Gold then nosed out Purrfect Moon in the 6th to deny Alex Cruz the win and add to Duran’s total.
Orozco off to fast start
Maybe a bit forgotten with all the new names and big runs is Emerald veteran Kevin Orozco who is also tied for 2nd with 6 wins. Orozco has been a regular visitor to the winners circle in 2025 with two more visits this past weekend. Orozco scored on Saturday with Precedent Luke in the 2nd race at 2-1. He picked up win #2 in the 5th race on Sunday aboard Adios Jojo at 7-2. Last year Orozco finished with 18 wins for the season and in 6 days he is already a third of the way to what he did last year. Orozco now has the longest streak of at least 1 win a day with 5 in a row missing only on opening day.
Slew has new pilot to his liking
Slew’s Tiz Whiz and Jose Zunino were together for 21 or his first 24 career starts. They did a lot of damage together over those rides including winning the Longacres Mile. Last year was the last time for Zunino to mount up on the fan fav Slew as he retired from racing.
So when trainer Tom Wenzel went looking for a new rider for Slew he really wanted to find the perfect fit and Julien Couton got the first audition. If this is how Couton and Slew are going to get along then the auditions are closed. Couton got one win this weekend from just 4 mounts but none bigger than the race he won, the feature on Saturday.
Couton didn’t let speedster Papa’s Golden Boy run everyone off the track and kept Slew’s Tiz Whiz closer than he has been in the past and rolled with his thunderous close in the stretch to a 3 length win at even odds. Slew and Couton could be big trouble for everyone else in the big races this season.
First win of the season
Francisco Diaz-Lopez is well known on the backstretch getting on multiple horses every morning and putting in long hours during the workouts. Diaz-Lopez has never been one with hundreds of mounts in a season it is more selective. Francisco got his 1st win of 2025 and the public supported him with a massive 5 1/4-length win in the Saturday finale with Teiton River at 8-5 odds. Diaz-Lopez is now 1-0-1 from 6 mounts for the season, a 17% win clip.
Krigger the early leader
We saved the top dog for last and Kevin Krigger is off to a blazing start, averaging 1.5 wins per day with a total of 9. Krigger was shut out only on day 4. He’s had 3 multi win days with a triple on day 2 taking 3 of the 7 races on Kentucky Derby Day. He had 1 winner on opening day and doubled on day 3.
Krigger picked up a his 7th win last Saturday with 2-1 Smilingatthemoon in the 5th race. Krigger then doubled on Sunday taking the opener on 6-5 Surprisinglyperfect and then scoring on 11-1 Mashad Flats in the 7th race. This was the longest shot of the weekend to win. Krigger is a former Emerald riding champion back in 2005. Krigger is going to in the mix for this whole season.
Trainers
3 Wins for Rosales!
Former training champ Jorge Rosales has been close but it took until Saturday to get that first win. He and Alex Cruz were ready for a break-through an we know Cruz exploded for 4 wins and Rosales was pleased 3 of them were his. Rosales trained Surprise Fashion in the 1st race, Diamond Dee in the 3rd and Company’s Dream in the 4th. The 3 wins shoots Rosales right into the thick of things tied for 3rd in the trainer standings with Isidro Tamayo and Howard Gibson.
Double Winners
Howie Gibson pulled into that tie for 3rd with 2 wins on Sunday. Gibson is making his presence known early expanding his stable and producing early in the season. Gibson got his first win on Sunday in the 3rd with Gold Coast Girl for owners Ron and Nina Hagen. Gibson then won for owners Chad and Josh in the 5th race with Adios Jojo. Gibson is winning at a 25% pace with a record of 3-0-1 from 12 starts.
The second leading trainer in career wins at Emerald Downs, Tim McCanna is back in the PNW with his largest stable he’s had in several years. McCanna picked up a win on Saturday and Sunday to improve his record to 5-3-2 from 12 starts for a blazing 42% win rate and 83% top 3 finish. McCanna won the 5th race on Saturday with Smilingatthemoon and took the 4th race with Shelby Gold on Sunday.
Wright still in control!
Fresh off his 4 win Mother’s Day Blaine Wright added another win to push his total to 7 a 2 win lead over McCanna and +4 on the trio tied for 3rd. Wright won the 2nd race on Sunday with Louie the First. Wright was knocking on the door for more wins as he went 1-2-4 from 11 starts over the weekend. He’s now 7-4-7 from 22 starts for an impressive 32% run and 82% top 3 finish. Wright also leads in earnings and is the lone trainer in triple figs earning $112,925.
Single Winners
Isidro Tamayo kept pace with Rosales and Gibson getting his 3rd win of fhe year on Saturday when Precedent Luke won the 2nd race. Tamayo is now 3-1-3 from his 13 starts winning at a 23% rate.
Vince Gibson and his owners White Diamond Syndicate with Lusk Racing got their 1st win of the season when Red Leader won Sunday’s finale. Leading Stakes trainer last year Tom Wenzel scored win #1 with Slew’s Tiz Whiz in the Saturday feature. Jose Navarro got to the winners circle for the first time in Saturday’s 8th race with Teiton River. Serjio Garcia broke the ice on Sunday in the 6th with G G Gilley, Shelly Crowe sent out the longest shot winner of the weekend with 11-1 Mashad Flats in Sunday’s 7th race and Joe Toye is 1 for 1 taking the feature on Sunday with I’m Noble.
Charlie Essex also won once this weekend but was his 2nd win of the season. There’s only one horse with two wins on the year Moonlight Grey and as we covered earlier Moonlight Grey is trained by Essex. Essex is now 2-3-0 from 10 starts for a 20% win rate and 50% in the top 3.
The Betting Window
There was one new season high return this week and that was Sunday’s Pick 5. The new high Pick 5 pay-out is $4,435.24. There were 4 winning tickets cashing on on stringing a 7-2 to 8-5 to 11-1 to 7-2 to 8-5. So it wasn’t the hardest pick 5 tyo put together but likely had to go deep on a few of those races.
The 20-cent Jackpot Pick 6 on Saturday also paid 4k with a single ticket taking the whole pot. The winner collected $4,435.76 which is a big pay-off but is not the largest for the pick 6 with a 5k+ pay-off on top.
The best $2 win pay was by 11-1 Mashad Flats in the 8th race on Sunday returning 24.74 but the top $2 place pay was $10 from 9-1 Moonlight Grey in Saturday’s 6th race. Mashad Flats did return the highest $2 show paying $7.22.
There is one carry-over going into the 3-day Memorial Day weekend and that’s the Jackpot Pick 6 with a $734 starting bank.
The Claim Report
Saturday, May 17
1st Race
Surprise Fashion was claimed by owner/trainer Michael Bullene for $2,500
Tribunal Love was tagged by new owner Terrence Birdrattler and goes to trainer Michael Bullene for $2,500
2nd Race
Roper was taken by new owner/trainer Sergio Perez for $2,500
5th Race
Smilingatthemoon was claimed by Lusk Racing for trainer Howie Gibson for $5,000
8th Race
Tieton River has new owners Tim and Sue Spooner for trainer Dan Markle for $10,000
Sunday, May 18
2nd Race
Bourbon Dancer was red tagged by Ty Leatherman, Austin Evans and Rakoczy Racing and heads to trainer Justin Evans for $25,000
3rd Race
Ready to Gig goes to Albaro Fernandez Reyes for conditioner Howie Gibson for 5k
Spicy Ride heads to the Charlie Essex barn for owner Kerry Gundderson for $5,000
5th Race
Rock N Tiger goes to Rockingham Ranch and trainer Justin Evans for $25,000
7th Race
Artemus Gordon’s new barn is trainer Alexis Silva-Martinez for new owners Lusk Racing, David Silva and Noe Plazola for $3,500
8th Race
Light the Beam was claimed by new owner Aaron Bresko for trainer Tena Birdwell for $8,000
9th Race
Arnie Boy heads to trainer Dan Markle for owners Tim and Sue Spooner for $10,000
Saturday’s Total: $22,500
Sunday’s Total: $81,500
Weekend Total: $104,000
Season Total: $222,500
www.elisportsnetwork.com
