Tax Code, Aloha Breeze set Emerald Downs track records

Tax Code and Aloha Breeze turned Emerald Downs into a speed showcase on Sunday, each setting a track record in a rare stakes double that carried meaning beyond the local circuit. Tax Code won the Budweiser Stakes in 1:08.31, while Aloha Breeze answered in the Hastings Stakes with a 1:08.80 blowout that left no doubt about her current form.

Tax Code delivered the headline performance in the Budweiser, paying $12.22 and beating heavily favored stablemate Si That Tiger by 2 3/4 lengths. The 7-year-old was making his first stakes start for trainer Blaine Wright, and the victory gave Wright a record result in a race he had once hoped to target two years earlier before a muddy-track injury sent the horse to a long layoff. Kevin Krigger said Tax Code broke sharply and still had plenty left after he and Si That Tiger matched strides on the turn, and the opening fractions told part of the story: 22.57 seconds for the quarter-mile and 44.86 for the half.

Even with that pace pressure, Tax Code still finished with the fastest Budweiser Stakes time in Emerald Downs history. The mark says as much about the horse’s sharpness as it does about the day’s conditions: a quick pace, a clean trip, and a horse seasoned enough to keep producing at age 7. Wright, who entered the week ranked No. 3 all-time in Emerald Downs stakes wins with 59, added another reminder of how often his barn shows up in the meet’s biggest races.

Aloha Breeze made the Hastings Stakes look even more controlled. She wired the fillies and mares field in 1:08.80, crossed 6 1/4 lengths clear of Stay Sassy, and became Emerald Downs’ top-earning female with $315,390 in local purse money. The victory was her eighth career stakes win at Emerald Downs and gave trainer Tom Wenzel his 68th career stakes victory at the track, breaking a tie with Doris Harwood for the all-time lead.

Wenzel’s record carries its own weight because Aloha Breeze was already an Emerald Downs standard-bearer. She had been voted Horse of the Meeting for the track’s 30th season in 2025 and became the first horse in track history to win four consecutive divisional titles. In the Hastings, Wenzel told Carlos Montalvo to go after the field and run them off their feet, and the mare did exactly that.

The day also had a fitting regional edge. The Hastings Stakes is named for the dormant Hastings Racecourse in Vancouver, British Columbia, with veteran announcer Dan Jukich handling the call and former Daily Racing Form correspondent Randy Goulding presenting the trophy. On a June stakes card listed at 6 furlongs and $50,000 apiece for both races, Emerald Downs got more than novelty. It got two record runs from horses that have already earned a place in the track’s modern history.