Zippin Sevenz begins year in sprint

Zippin Sevenz, winner of last year’s Emerald Distaff, will make her seasonal bow in Sunday’s conditioned allowance feature over 5 1/2 furlongs at Emerald Downs.

The biggest local race of the 2022 season for the filly and mare set was the $75,000 Emerald Distaff, and longshot Zippin Sevenz led gate to wire in the 1 1/16-mile event. The 5-yearold daughter of Coast Guard will face five others Sunday and has been working smartly all spring at Emerald Downs. She looks ready after a lively five furlongs clocked in 59.80 seconds on May 19.

Zippin Sevenz, trained by Alan Bozell, has won three times sprinting and is comfortable either setting or stalking the early pace. Jockey Alex Cruz was aboard for last year’s big win and will do the riding Sunday.

Potentially formidable among the opposition is last year’s Washington Oaks runner-up Slack Tide. The Blaine Wright trainee may have matured enough to have a strong say in Sunday’s outcome, and the conditioner said she “has trained well.”

“Sometimes the transition from 3 to 4 years old can prove to be challenging,” Wright said. “[We’re] hoping that coming back to home base will spark something.”

Slack Tide raced twice at Golden Gate Fields in April, with the first being an allowance that was won by tough customer Always Seeking, who was winning for the fifth time in a row. The pair faced off again four weeks later, albeit on grass, in the Camilla Urso, with Slack Tide finishing seventh and Always Seeking last in eighth.

Sunday’s pacesetting duties will likely fall to Ms Parkside, who was a narrow winner over You Go Girl two weeks ago. That was the fourth win in six career starts at Emerald Downs for the daughter of Sixthirteen.

You Go Girl is back in Sunday’s field as well, along with the very consistent Lets Declare Peace and longshot Head Start. Lets Declare Peace, trained by Frank Lucarelli, will be making just her second local start since spending her 2-year-old season at Emerald Downs in 2020.

Lets Declare Peace won a pair of allowances at Remington Park in late 2021 before being sidelined until June 2022. She then prepped on turf at Lone Star Park before turning up at Emerald Downs a month later when finishing third in the Washington State Legislators Stakes.

On Sunday, Lets Declare Peace will be returning from another three-month layoff. She managed an allowance win at Turf Paradise in January for her fifth career triumph in 20 starts. The Declaration of War filly has yet to reproduce her form of late 2021.

The weather is expected to be sunny and mild, with no chance of rain on Sunday when racing begins at 2 p.m. Pacific.