GOVERNOR’S HANDICAP
73rd RUNNING, MAY 20, 2012
6-½ FURLONGS IN 1:13.97 :22.43 :44.10 1:07.67
JOCKEY JAVIER MATIAS, WINNING MACHINE, WINNER: “I was galloping him in the morning, and he was training really good. The plan was to sit behind the leaders, but nobody sent their horses. So I changed my plans and said ‘let’s go.’ When we reached the quarter-pole, I thought ‘man, I might win this thing.’ I knew he had a lot more left in him. He has so much heart for being such a little man of a horse. I’ve been working really hard everyday, so this win makes me very happy.”
JOCKEY WILLIAM ANTONGEORGI, JEBRICA, SECOND: “He really ran great today. I had dead-aim on Winning Machine, but we just couldn’t quite get there. Once the races start getting longer, I don’t think anybody will be able to beat Jebrica. The funny thing is, (jockeys) were talking all week about how Winning Machine was the sleeper coming into the race, and he showed it.”
JOCKEY JOSE ZUNINO, HOLLYWOOD HARBOR, THIRD: “He was a little nervous today. He’s never been like that with me before. He got a little excited in the gate and did not break good at all. I’m not disappointed with his run. He tried the entire way. If he broke well, the race would’ve been different. He ran against the best horses on the track, and I’m happy with how he tried.”
JOCKEY LESLIE MAWING, NOOSA BEACH, FOURTH: “I knew there was a quick pace up front. At the five-sixteenths pole, I had to ask him quite a bit. He wouldn’t change leads for me until I tapped him with the left-handed stick. By the time he switched leads, (Hollywood Harbor) was drifting out pretty wide and taking us with him. I was stuck in a pretty bad spot. (Noosa Beach) was moving pretty fast in the stretch, but we were losing too much ground.”
NOTES: Winning Machine (28-8-7-3-$390,278)…The final time of 1:13.97 ties the stakes record of 1:13-4/5 set by Trooper Seven in 1980…Winning Machine has three stakes wins at Emerald Downs (2009 Tacoma, 2009 Emerald Derby, 2012 Governor’s) and four overall…Javier Matias has 13 stakes wins at Emerald Downs, good for 12th place all-time…Frank Lucarelli has 28 stakes wins at EmD and ranks fifth all-time…Although Lucarelli won the 2011 training title at EmD, he had no stakes wins. His previous EmD stakes win was Mizzen You in the Belle Roberts Stakes, Sept. 12, 2010…This is only the third time in 14 head-to-head meetings that Winning Machine finished ahead of his former stablemate Noosa Beach…Next for older horses: $50,000 Budweiser Handicap, one mile, Sunday, June 17.
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