Ducoti had her consistency rewarded Friday night at Emerald Downs, notching a front-running three-length victory in the featured Woburn Abbey Memorial Purse for older fillies and mares.
With Juan Gutierrez riding, Ducoti ran six furlongs in 1:09.02 on a fast track and paid $4.80, $3.20 and $3. Bill Tollett is the trainer for owner/breeder Stephen Quilici of Roy, Wash.
In her previous four races this season at Emerald Downs, Ducoti hade racked up three thirds and a fourth, but the 5-year-old mare wasn’t to be denied this time. Breaking from the No. 5 post-position, Ducoti sprinted to a clear lead, set fractions of :22.27, :44.80 and :56.06 and was never seriously threatened.
A Washington-bred by He’s Tops-Go Platinum, Ducoti is five-for-20 at Emerald Downs and seven-for-29 lifetime with earnings of $35,256. He’s Tops, incidentally, also sired E Z Kitty, the 11-to-1 winner of the Washington State Legislators Stakes last Sunday.
Up Your Plan, ridden by Jose Zunino, finished second by a nose and paid $4.80 and $2.80. Like Ducoti, the runner-up is a 5-year-old Washington-bred mare with a consistent 2-3-0 record in five starts at the meet.
Must Be Gold, ridden by Joe Crispin, finished third and paid $4.20 for show. Pete’s Glory Girl and Who’s Calling Now completed the order of finish. Dah Gift was a late scratch.
NOTES: Roveing Patrol and jockey Leonel Camacho-Flores rallied to win Friday’s opener, the first race of the meet for 2-year-olds. A Nacheezmo filly owned, bred and trained by Don Munger, Roveing Patrol ran 4-½ furlongs in :52.02 and paid $11.40*It was an eventful night for Camacho-Flores, who regrouped from a third-race spill to complete a two-win night with a victory aboard Our Marshall Cahill ($10.40) in the fifth race*Camacho-Flores was unseated from Feisty Lass in the stretch run of race three, but neither jockey nor horse were injured*Eliska Kubinova also had two wins on the night and the apprentice remains second with 29 wins, three back of Gutierrez*With his feature race win on Ducoti, Gutierrez has ridden at least one winner on 12 of the last 13 cards*Cavanagh Bay scored as the 11-to-10 favorite in the nightcap, and Tim McCanna crept within two wins of Howard Belvoir in the trainers’ standings. Belvoir leads by an 18-16 margin, with Frank Lucarelli third with 14*Live racing continues Saturday with a 10-race program at 2:15 p.m.
