The waiting is over for Perfect Pie.
The hard-trying 7-year-old mare led gate-to-wire Saturday, scoring a half-length victory over Cha Cha Latte in the Franciscan Healthy System Purse for older fillies and mares.
With Anne Sanguinetti riding her second winner on the card, Perfect Pie ran six furlongs in 1:08.67 and paid $6.80, $2.60 and $2.10. Chris Stenslie trains the winner for owners One Horse Will Do Corp. and Tony Loften.
Cha Cha Latte, bidding to become the meet’s second five-time winner, settled for second place and paid $2.40 and $2.10. Bella Angelina finished third and paid $3 for show.
A Kentucky-bred by Tale of the Cat-Royal Parade, Perfect Pie is 9-9-6 in 35 starts and Saturday’s win pushed her to $102,549 in career earnings.
Before Saturday, Perfect Pie had gone 11 races and nearly two years between wins. Her last victory was August 26, 2012, and she had piled up four seconds and two thirds in the interim.
NOTES: Six winners paid double digits including ninth-race winner Skip My Turn ($13.80), a Raise the Bluff first-time starter that gave trainer Gary Lonctot his first Emerald Downs victory. . .Rocco Bowen, who rode Cha Cha Latte to the runner-up finish, was excused from his final two mounts Saturday with heat exhaustion. . .The father and son training tandem of Bill Tollett and David Tollett each had a win Saturday*Bill winning the opener with Claudia’s Cahill ($13.20) and David scoring in the eighth with Magic Molly ($11). . .Javier Matias rode both Tollett winners. . .Isaias Enriquez, Anne Sanguinetti and Eliska Kubinova also rode two winners. . .Kubinova also had a big night Friday with three wins and is the fourth jockey with 30 wins at the meet. . .Kandra crossed the wire second in race eight, but was disqualified and placed sixth for causing interference against Seadrifter in the stretch run. Leslie Mawing, the meet’s leading rider with 54 wins, went down in the incident but escaped serious injury and rode Alaazwho to a *sixth-place finish in the ninth race. . .10-year-old Immigration registered his 41st career in-the-money finish Saturday, finishing runner-up to Our Marshal Cahill ($31.40) in the second race. By Delineator-Still Reflection, Immigration is 6-21-14 in 76 starts with earnings of $209,834 for owner/trainer Howard Belvoir. . .Live racing continues Sunday with the $50,000 Seattle Slew Handicap for 3-year-old colts & geldings at 1 1/16 miles. First post is 2 p.m.
