When the beloved 11-year-old gelding Surprsinglyperfect crosses the finish line in Saturday’s fifth race, it will, according to trainer Justin Evans, be his 13th and final race at Emerald Downs. But whether the one-mile, $20,000 claiming event will be the 98th and final race of Surprsinglyperfect’s career is another question.
A win Saturday would be Surprsinglyperfect’s fifth in six 2025 starts at the Auburn, Wash., racetrack and would all but clinch a second straight claimer of the year title. But as Evans put it, “If he goes out a winner, we’ve got some decisions to make.”
While this is the last weekend of racing for the year at Emerald, Evans has barns in Albuquerque and Phoenix, popular destinations for workaday West Coast Thoroughbreds whose connections are keen on racing in the fall and winter. Evans has said he wants to send Surprsinglyperfect off with a win, and that’s certainly on the table Saturday. But Surprsinglyperfect started the year going 3 for 5 at Turf Paradise, and an eighth 2025 victory would tie him atop the national win standings with a 4-year-old gelding named Busk, who has been racing mainly in low-level starter-allowance sprints in Kentucky.
“It gives me incentive to maybe think about Albuquerque and then maybe Phoenix once or twice before it’s over,” said Evans, who ha made it clear that 2025 will be Surprsinglyperfect’s final year of racing. “I’d like to really pad his résumé. The horse owes me nothing, but I owe a little bit to the horse. How cool would that be, looking up and seeing him as the winningest horse in America at age 11?”
Surprsinglyperfect has defeated four of his six rivals in Saturday’s field and is sure to go off favored. Surprsinglyperfect beat 2024 Muckleshoot Derby winner Dynamic Secret by just three-quarters of a length in a $25,000 claiming race on Aug. 22. For that runner-up effort, the 4-year-old Doug McPhee trainee posted a career-best 74 Beyer Speed Figure, indicating that he might have more to give.
The two runners Surprsinglyperfect has yet to face, Veritas Aequitas and Pirate Red, will break from the far inside and outside, respectively, and are both dropping down a bit in class. Pirate Red has never gone longer than 6 1/2 furlongs in his 12-race career, but the 5-year-old gelding has posted consecutive 75 Beyers – tied for the best last-out figure in the field with Surprsinglyperfect.
With leading jockey Kevin Krigger in the irons, it remains Surprsinglyperfect’s race to lose. And regardless of the difficult decisions a win may yield, that’s a debate Evans would welcome for his old warhorse.
“He’s the Tom Brady of horse racing, competing with the young horses and taking it to them,” said Evans. “He’s running big Beyers, numbers that a 4- and 5-year-old runs. In this day and age, I think it’s a great story. He’s a fan favorite and a barn favorite. He’s just an amazing horse.”
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