Chuckanut Bay may have finally made a believer out of his trainer, Howie Gibson.
On May 10, the 5-year-old gelding sped to a front-running, two-length victory in an $8,000 claiming race at Emerald Downs, earning a career-best 89 Beyer Speed Figure. In against tougher company at the $25,000 claiming level on June 7, Chuckanut Bay turned in a near duplicate of that race, again winning by two lengths and earning an 85 Beyer.
Gibson has now seen fit to raise the bar even further, entering Chuckanut Bay in a 6 1/2-furlong allowance with a $40,000 claiming option that serves as the race 7 feature on Saturday’s eight-race card.
“If Chuckanut runs back to those two races, he’ll be pretty tough to beat out there,” admitted Gibson, who has shrewdly kept expectations low for the horse.
Chuckanut Bay has a local record of 11-4-4-1, but he’s just 5-0-2-1 in his career at 6 1/2 furlongs.
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Gibson has been reluctant to suggest Chuckanut Bay might be suited to stakes company, but when reminded that the horse ran a very respectable third in the $40,000 Hank Mills Jr. Overnight Stakes on Nov. 14 at Turf Paradise, Gibson conceded, “He might be having me dreaming of it, but those horses are pretty tough over there. We’ll know a lot more on Saturday. If he wins that race, we might have to give him a try at it.”
In assessing the chances of the other eight horses in Saturday’s field, Gibson singled out the formidable Justin Evans entry Hockey Dad. On the one hand, Hockey Dad finished third routing in both the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby Steaks and Grade 2 Del Mar Derby as a 3-year-old, beaten only a length and three-quarters of a length, respectively. On the other hand, that was back in 2021, and Hockey Dad hasn’t raced since posting a career-high 87 Beyer in a one-mile allowance at Del Mar in September 2022.
As if that isn’t enough to give bettors pause, the only time Hockey Dad ever tried the 6 1/2-furlong distance was in his first start back in December 2020 at Santa Anita. But he worked three furlongs in a bullet 33.40 seconds on May 22, and Evans coaxed another former Doug O’Neill trainee, Fun Money, into the winner’s circle off a similar layoff and work pattern earlier this Emerald meet.
“He suffered an injury right before we were gonna run him in Phoenix,” Evans said of Hockey Dad. “So we brought him up here, and his works have been phenomenal. We thought this would be a good comeback spot.
“It’s a tough comeback spot, but it’s always going to be with a horse like him. I think he’ll do better going longer later in the meet.”
Not to be underestimated is Executive Chef, a Blaine Wright trainee who was scratched from last Sunday’s $50,000 Budweiser Stakes, which was won by his stablemate, Clovisconnection. Wright won three of the four stakes races that day, and Executive Chef boasts the tactical speed to finish the job should Chuckanut Bay and Hockey Dad engage each other too eagerly in the early going.
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