Hastings Park leaders Masen and Apprehend head to Seattle for prestigious Longacres Mile

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While there’s more Friday night racing in East Van this week, local racing fans will also have eyes on Seattle, where two leading Hastings’ performers go for glory in Sunday’s $125,000 Longacres Mile at Emerald Downs.

The Craig MacPherson-trained Masen, recent winner of a valuable Allowance contest at Hastings, will be ridden by his regular partner Kerron Khelawan and heads to Seattle, according to MacPherson, in the best shape he’s been since joining the barn over the winter. An impeccably bred son of a European champion miler, Masen was purchased out of an online horse sale last year for $80,000 by MacPherson’s owner, Nicole Droder, and joined the horse population in Vancouver as part of Droder’s desire to support horse racing here.

MacPherson said: “It’s been a learning curve with Masen and I think we’re just starting to see him come together now. He had a nice work Sunday, so we’ll see what happens.”

Masen will be MacPherson’s second runner in the storied race, which dates back to 1935 and which has been run at Emerald Downs since 1996.

“When I was still in school age, my brother and I, we’d go down every year to see the Mile. The likes of (trainers) Charlie Whittingham have won the race, Richard Mandela’s won the race, Bob Baffert’s won the race. It may have lost a little of its shine, it used to be a race where you’d regularly see horses coming in from Chicago, Santa Anita and places like that, but it’s still a big race.”

Raced initially in Ireland, Masen has plenty of international travel experience and will ship down to Seattle just a couple of days before the Longacres Mile.

“The ship to Seattle is a pretty easy one. It’s only two to three hours, depending on traffic. With an older horse like this, I’m not too worried about him finding the new surroundings a problem,” he said.

The relatively short cross-border trip should also suit Apprehend, who is trained by Barbara Anderson-Heads and owned by Peter Redekop, whose Anothertwistafate won the Longacres in2020. Like Masen, Apprehend, who will start for just the second time this season following a recent track record-breaking victory in Edmonton, is used to life on the road.

“He’s been around the world and back again, so he’s pretty educated on travelling and he’s really good about it,” Anderson-Heads revealed.
Like MacPherson, Anderson-Heads has yet to win a Longacres Mile, but feels Apprehend represents the best chance she’s had to scratch that particular itch.

“I’ve never really had the opportunity where I’ve had the right horse,” she said. “Apprehend looks to be competitive in the race and it’s fun to have a horse like him to take down there.”

Apprehend, who will need to overcome a wide gate draw, will be ridden by leading Hastings jockey Amadeo Perez, who won the Longacres in 2013 on Herbie D for Hastings’ trainer, Rob Gilker. This year’s Longacres also features the former B.C. Derby runner-up Moneyshot, who is now based at Emerald Downs in the barn of former Hastings’ handler, Ian Jewell. Jewell also saddles Seas of Normandy and both horses run for Hastings’ owners, Wynn Racing.

Meanwhile, 13 three-year-olds, including the sole filly No Time, will chase a $1 million purse in Saturday’s 166th running of the King’s Plate, the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, at Woodbine.

Hastings selections

Friday, Aug.15.: First post 7 p.m. Race 3. Prime Directive caught the eye when losing in a head-bob finish on just his second lifetime run and he reappears here for new connections after being claimed last time.

Race 4. Snap to It, who was promoted to first on the disqualification of a stablemate two starts ago, can break a five-race runner-up sequence stretching back to August last year.

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