At the beginning of every Emerald Downs season jockey Juan Gutierrez sets a goal to do better than his previous year.

This year, not only is Gutierrez beating his previous marks, but he’s also leading nearly every statistical category: wins, earnings, stakes wins (tied for first), etc. The 43-year-old rider tied his Emerald Downs career-high when he rode his 100th winner of the meeting last Monday*and win No. 100 capped a spectacular afternoon in which the jockey rode five winners and finished 5-2-0 in seven mounts on the Labor Day card.

With nine days left in the 81-day meet, Gutierrez owns a 15-win lead over defending champion Leslie Mawing and has virtually clinched his first Emerald Downs’ riding title. Gutierrez also leads all riders with $958,742 in purse money*nearly $200,000 more than No. 2 in the standings*and is tied with Javier Matias for most stakes wins at six apiece. Gutierrez said he’d be pleased with his statistics if the season ended today, but added there’s time for more wins, especially with Washington Cup X on the docket this Sunday.

“I’m very happy with how well this season has gone,” Gutierrez said. “Anything else I do is a bonus.”

Incidentally, Gutierrez, a two-time Longacres Mile winner, also has had great success in Washington Cup. His 12 Washington Cup wins rank No. 1, and he caused a stir by sweeping the final three races last year. Gutierrez rides in five of the six stakes in Sunday’s $215,000 extravaganza including rides on former state champions Jebrica and Sis’s Sis.

Voted Champion 3-Year-Old of 2011, Jebrica heads a solid group of older horses running 1-1/16 miles in the $40,000 Muckleshoot Tribal Classic. The Liberty Gold gelding comes off an eighth-place effort, under Gutierrez, as the field’s lone Washington-bred runner in the Longacres Mile. Gutierrez and Jebrica’s only other collaborative effort came in a July 28 allowance race, which they won by 2-¾ lengths.

Meanwhile, Gutierrez has ridden Sis’s Sis in 17-of her-20 races including all eight career wins, and will be aboard her once again in the $35,000 Belle Roberts Stakes for older fillies and mares at 1-1/16 miles. Sis’s Sis earned Champion 3-Year-Old Filly honors in 2010 after she captured the Irish Day Handicap and the John & Kitty Fletcher Stakes on Washington Cup Day. Though it’s been two years since Sis’s Sis won a stakes race, Gutierrez said she should be tough to catch in the Belle Roberts.

“She hasn’t gone two turns yet this season, but she’s got a lot of class,” Gutierrez said. “I hope I can get her to relax and keep the pace slow.”

WASHINGTON CUP TRIVIA

Three horses that competed in Washington Cup V on September 16, 2007, remain active at Emerald Downs. Can you name them?

NOOSA BEACH’S BROTHER TOPS WTBOA SALE

Trainer Doris Harwood knows better than anyone what an offspring by Harbor the Gold out of Julia Rose can produce on a racetrack.

After all, she conditions Noosa Beach, arguably the greatest Thoroughbred to race at Emerald Downs, and stakes-placed 2-year-old Music of My Soul, who makes his next start in Sunday’s $35,000 Dennis Dodge Stakes. So when breeders Pam and Neal Christopherson (Bar C Racing Stables) entered Hip # 112*a full brother to both siblings*into Monday’s WTBOA Summer Yearling and Mixed Sale, it was no surprise to see the dark bay yearling wind up in Harwood’s care.

“I have several reasons why I wanted this horse, and they are all pretty obvious,” Harwood said. “Just the pedigree alone attracted me to the horse, but when I saw how big and athletic he looked, I knew I had to have him.”

The $55,000 sales topper is unnamed but his syndicate includes several prominent owners: Mullen and Patricia Chinn (Vital Signs Stable), Michael Pollowitz and Jeff Wilson, Terry Tonasket (Stogie Stable), Duane Weber, Delores Christianson (Shady Valley Ranch) and Harwood’s husband and Noosa Beach’s owner, Jeff Harwood. To honor Julia Rose, who passed away from colic last fall, and to recognize her final foal, Harwood said she’d name the syndicate “Last Rose Stable.”

For more information about the WTBOA sale and it’s complete results visit washingtonthoroughbred.com.

TOP EMERALD DOWNS RUNNERS INVADE CANADA

Class Included and Champagneandcaviar, overwhelming favorites to win Top Older Filly or Mare and Top Juvenile Filly this season at Emerald Downs, both run in stakes this Sunday at Hastings Racecourse in Vancouver B.C.

Class Included is entered in the $50,000 Delta Colleen Handicap at 1-1/8 miles and Champagneandcaviar goes in the $100,000 British Columbia Oaks at 1-1/8 miles. William Antongeorgi has the mount on both horses, and also rides Italian Boy in the $200,000 British Columbia Derby (G3C) later on the card.

Owned and bred by Mike and Amy Feuerborn, Class Included dominated the local older filly and mare division while compiling a 4-1-0 record in five starts at the meeting. Trained by Jim Penney, the 4-year-old daughter of Include maintains one of the track’s most awesome statistics*never having finished worse than second in 14 career starts*compiling an 8-6-0 record and earnings of $292,573.

Champagneandcaviar, on the other hand, needed several races to find her winning stride for trainer Howard Belvoir. The Kentucky-bred by Van Nistelrooy began the meet with three straight losses in the maiden claiming ranks, getting trounced by horses she now would handle easily. She finally broke her maiden June 9, and there’s no stopping her lately. In both the Kent Handicap at 1-1/16 miles and the Washington Oaks at 1-1/8 miles, Champagneandcaviar managed to beat Exclusive Diva in hard fought stretch runs, earning career-high Beyers of 78 and 79.

While Makors Finale will be heavily favored in Sunday’s $35,000 Chinook Pass Stakes at Emerald Downs, his two chief combatants this season will slug it out in the BC Derby. Italian Boy and D’honorable One are among the field of 12 (and one also-eligible) in the 1-1/8-mile test on the bullring. Regular rider Antongeorgi is on Italian Boy while Fernando Perez replaces Leslie Mawing on D’honorable One. Mawing remains at Emerald Downs and has mounts in all six Washington Cup races.

TRIVIA ANSWER

Chickasaw Park and Immigration, first and fourth in the 2007 Chinook Pass Sprint, and Wasserman, third in the 2007 Muckleshoot tribal Classic. Wild Cycle, runner-up in the 2007 Trooper Seven Stakes, also remains active but not at Emerald Downs. The 8-year-old gelding raced four times this summer at Les Bois Park.

NOTES: Week 21 honors: Jockey-Juan Gutierrez (24-9-3-4); Trainer-Martin Pimentel (4-2-1-1); Owner-Dr. Rodney Orr (3-1-0-1); Groom-Oscar Rodriguez (Joe Toye); Washington Bred-Majorca Gold (breeder Dale Mahlum)*Sunday’s Washington Cup X edition of the “Paddock Preview Show” features owner Craig Fredrickson who discusses Couldabenthewhisky’s chances in the $40,000 Muckleshoot Tribal Classic. Hosted by Jacob Pollowitz, the program runs from 1:05-1:20 p.m. in the paddock area*St Liams Halo and Jump Up and Kissme, fourth and sixth-place finishers in the Longacres Mile, are entered at Hastings Racecourse in Sunday’s $50,000 S.W. Randall Plate Handicap at 1-1/8 miles. Mario Gutierrez has opted to ride St Liams Halo in the S. W. Randall Plate, even though he rode Commander to three straight stakes wins at Northlands Park. North American Thoroughbred Horse Company (Glen Todd) campaigns both St Liams Halo and Commander and also owns Longacres Mile winner Taylor Said*Tim McCanna (10 titles) and Frank Lucarelli (four) have won 14 of 16 training titles in track history and it appears this year will be no exception. With nine days remaining, Lucarelli owns a 40-37 lead over McCanna, with Howard Belvoir (32), Chris Stenslie (30) and Tom Wenzel rounding out the top five*Don & Wanda Munger lead Sue & Tim Spooner 16-10 in the owners’ standings and appear set to end a two-year run by Belvoir as leading owner*In owners’ earnings, Mike & Amy Feuerborn lead with $172,816, followed by the Spooners, $118,802, North American Thoroughbred Horse Co., $110,000, and Northwest Farms, $108,528*Updates on a pair of former Washington Cup winners: 2011 Diane Kem Stakes champion Kit Cat Kitty runs Sunday in a 1-1/16-mile claiming race for trainer Vann Belvoir on opening weekend at Fairplex Park. And 2011 John & Kitty Fletcher Stakes winner E Z Kitty had her first drill since being sold privately last month, working four furlongs in :49-1/5 at Golden Gate Fields for trainer Mike Chambers. A 4-year-old Washington-bred by He’s Tops, E Z Kitty is the only horse to defeat Class Included this year, a three-quarter-length victory in the Washington State Legislators Handicap on June 10*Chukchi Sunrise, the state’s Most Improved Plater of 2011, runs in a $39,000 allowance/optional claiming race Sunday at Fairplex Park.