Trainer Jim Penney looking for winner's circle in $65,000 Emerald Distaff | Emerald Downs

Washington Racing Hall of Fame trainer Jim Penney ranks No. 3 all-time with 43 stakes wins at Emerald Downs, including Longacres Mile scores with Edneator, Sabertooth and Flamethrowintexan.

Penney, however, has never won the track’s marquee event for older fillies and mares, the $65,000 Emerald Distaff which celebrates its 17th running Sunday, August 19, as part of a stakes double-header that features the $200,000 Longacres Mile (G3).

While Penney figures to have a fair chance with Jebrica in The Mile, he appears ready to dominate the Emerald Distaff, nominating four horses including probable betting favorite Class Included.

Penney’s four runners include Emerald Downs’ last two champion 3-year-old fillies, Class Included and Sis’s Sis, and 2011 Belle Roberts winner Sweet Nellie Brown.

Class Included and Sis’s Sis, both owned by Michael and Amy Feuerborn, are a combined 5-1-0 in six starts this season at Emerald Downs.

Class Included is 7-6-0 in 13 career starts with five stakes wins, and has been so dominant Mike Feuerborn toyed with the idea of nominating his 4-year-old homebred to The Mile. Instead she races at possibly her best distance in the Distaff; last year Class Included swept the Washington and BC Oaks and finished second vs. older horses in the Ballerina Handicap (G3), all at 1-1/8 miles.

E Z Kitty is the only horse to beat Class Included this year, scoring a gate-to-wire victory in the Washington State Legislators Stakes at 6-½ furlongs. Class Included, however, rebounded with a 2-½-length triumph over Sweet Nellie Brown in the Boeing Handicap at one mile, with E Z Kitty finishing fifth.

Caged Mistress has been a mainstay against older fillies and mares at Hastings Racecourse and comes off a nose victory in the Strawberry Morn Handicap at 1-1/16 miles.

Carrabelle Harbor finished third in the Boeing but is a three-time stakes winner at Emerald Downs and defeated Class Included in the 2011 Kant Handicap at 1-1/16 miles.

$65,000 Emerald Distaff

1-1/8 Miles, 17th Running, Sunday, August 19, 2012

Horse Owner Trainer

Caged Mistress (5-IDA) North American Tbred Racing Co. Michael Puhich

Carrabelle Harbor (4-ORE) Bar C Racing & Desert Rose Racing Doris Harwood

Class Included (4-KY) Michael & Amy Feuerborn Jim Penney

E Z Kitty (4-WA) Tige Too Racing Stable H R Gibson

Private Fortune (5-WA) Blue Ribbon Racing #2 Jim Penney

Sis’s Sis (5-WA) Michael & Amy Feuerborn Jim Penney

Sweet Nellie Brown (5-WA) James & Zola Proffitt Jim Penney

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