Mach One Rules Made Heavyweight in Longacres Mile

R.E.V. Racing's Mach One Rules is slated to carry top weight in the Aug. 13 Longacres Mile Handicap (G3), against a field of 11 other older males that includes multiple graded stakes winner Stryker Phd and last year's Mile winner Point Piper.

The $200,000 Longacres Mile is the centerpiece of the Emerald Downs meet. The card also includes the $65,000 Emerald Distaff for older fillies and mares and a pair of sprints for older horses—the Pete Pedersen Memorial Overnight Stakes and the King County Overnight Stakes.

Mach One Rules, trained by Frank Lucarelli, comes in off two stakes victories at the Auburn, Wa., track. In the June 18 $50,000 Budweiser Stakes going 6 1/2 furlongs, the gelded son of Harbor the Gold stalked the pace and was able to get up by three-quarters of a length. 

Four weeks later he returned in the 1 1/16-mile $50,000 Mt. Ranier Stakes July 16 to win by two lengths over fellow Longacres Mile contenders Bistraya and Papa Frank, as well as Budweiser also-rans Barkley and Dedicated to You.

In his season debut April 22, Mach One Rules came in third in an optional-claiming allowance race and then finished second May 21 in the Governor's Stakes, a neck behind Barkley. The 4-year-old gelding has only finished out of the money twice in 15 starts and owns a record of 6-5-2.

Carrying 123 pounds in the Mile, Mach One Rules will give the rest of the field an advantage of between two and 11 pounds.

Stryker Phd is the only graded stakes winner in the field, but the 8-year-old has not won since taking the Berkeley Handicap (G3) in November at Golden Gate Fields. 

Trained by Larry Ross, the Bertrando gelding is a two-time winner of the Longacres Mile (2014-15). He finished third in his season debut, a January allowance at Golden Gate. He followed that effort with two losses at the allowance level and a fifth in the San Francisco Mile Stakes (G3T) before a fifth-place run behind Mach One Rules in the Budweiser Stakes.

Racing almost exclusively in graded stakes since the beginning of 2016, last year's Mile winner Point Piper will attempt to defend his title, but the 7-year-old son of Giant's Causeway  has not won since that race.

Trained by Jerry Hollendorfer for Gato Racing, All Schlaich Stables, and Russo Racing, Point Piper began 2017 with a fourth at Santa Anita Park in the 1 1/8-mile San Gabriel Stakes (G3) in January. He then finished sixth in the Triple Bend Stakes (G1) going seven furlongs at Santa Anita March 11 and was most recently seventh in the May 29 All American Stakes (G3) at Golden Gate.

Rising Star Stable's Barkley finished fourth and third in his last two efforts, but the multiple stakes-winning Munnings  colt had seven wins and two seconds from 11 lifetime starts, all at Emerald Downs.

Entries: Longacres Mile H. (G3)

Emerald Downs, Sunday, August 13, 2017, Race 8

• Grade III
• 1m
• Dirt
• $200,000
• 3 yo's & up
• 5:51 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Bistraya (LA)	Amadeo Perez	120	Robert Gilker	12/1
2	2Point Piper (KY)	Julien Couton	121	Jerry Hollendorfer	9/2
3	3Gold Rush Dancer (CA)	Evin A. Roman	120	Vann Belvoir	4/1
4	4Black Sona (OK)	David A. Martin	112	David B. Martinez	30/1
5	5Papa Frank (CA)	Jose Luis Zunino	113	Mary Tate	30/1
6	6Seattle Serenade (KY)	William Antongeorgi III	119	Jerry Hollendorfer	8/1
7	7Dedicated to You (WA)	Leonel Camacho-Flores	115	David B. Martinez	30/1
8	8Stryker Phd (WA)	Kevin E. Orozco	120	Larry D. Ross	12/1
9	9Mach One Rules (WA)	Isaias D. Enriquez	123	Frank Lucarelli	7/2
10	10Chief of Staff (CA)	Rocco Bowen	117	Michael Puhich	6/1
11	11Barkley (KY)	Javier Matias	121	Howard Belvoir	5/1
12	12Togrammashousewego (WA)	Eswan Flores	115	Charles Essex	20/1