In just his third start, David P. Taylor Jr.’s Mana Strike rolled to a 2 1/4-length victory in the $75,000 Gold Rush Stakes run at Golden Gate Fields on Dec. 5.
After trailing the field for the first three-quarters, the Frank Lucarelli trainee charged clear down the center in the stretch to finish the mile race in 1:38.36.
“I’m excited,” said Lucarelli. “I think he’s got an excellent future.” The California Derby on January 16 and the El Camino Real Derby on February 13 are under consideration for the new stakes winner’s next outings.
Fellow Washingtonian Rozamund Barclay’s homebred Algenon, by Aragorn (Ire), finished second in the field for trainer Len Kasmerski.
Following two lengths further back in third place in the field of six was Alan Klein, Phillip Lebherz and Richard Meister’s Marqula.
Mana Strike and Marqula were both bred in Washington and are 2014 WTBOA Summer Sale graduates.
Mana Strike, a gelded son of Papa Clem-Kirkela, by Giant’s Causeway, was bred by Bar C Racing Stables Inc. The $32,000 purchase had won a six-furlong maiden special weight race by four lengths at Golden Gate on October 3 in his first outing.
Mana Strike has earned $63,600. The runner’s four-year-old half-brother Kenai King, by Harbor the Gold, finished second in the Frog Lake Handicap on October 4at Portland Meadows to give him two stakes placements and up Kenai King’s earnings to $53,230.
Marqula, a $15,000 September yearling, is the second stakes horse sired by El Dorado Farms LLC’s freshman stallion Coast Guard. Bred by Jean Welch – Tall Cedars Farm – Marqula is out of the Marquetry mare Marquet Formula. Marqula next ran second in an allowance/$40,000 optional claiming (N) race at the Albany track on December 26, pushing his earnings to $36,000.
