While Noosa Beach commands most of the attention leading into
Sunday’s Grade 3 Longacres Mile at Emerald Downs, another local horse,
Winning Machine, has been going about his business, more or less under
the radar. Some talented runners from California and Canada are shipping
in to chase a share of the $200,000 purse, but Jeff Harwood, who owns
Noosa Beach, says Winning Machine is the horse he fears more than any
other.
Harwood is quite familiar with Winning Machine. His wife, Doris
Harwood, trained the horse until midway through the 2010 Emerald
meeting, when Winning Machine was transferred to trainer Frank
Lucarelli. By then Winning Machine had gone off form, but after a
restful winter, the 5-year-old is rounding into peak form. He closed
strongly to finish second behind Noosa Beach in the one-mile Budweiser
Handicap on June 17, and followed up with a pacesetting second in the 1
1/6-mile Mt. Rainier Handicap on July 24. Winning Machine giving way
grudgingly to Noosa Beach, losing by just a half-length, and posted a
Beyer Speed Figure of 92, equaling his career best.
“He ran great,” Lucarelli said this week. “I wished Assessment didn’t
come up and hook into him early, at the five-eighths. But Noosa Beach
is a tough horse, and he might have got by us anyway. I was very pleased
with the effort. He ran his guts out right to the wire.”
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