Howie Gibson traveled to Turf Paradise for the first time as a trainer with no expectations. Based at Emerald Downs, he’d galloped horses and worked for Washington state Hall of Famer Frank Lucarelli at the Phoenix track, but this was the first time Gibson had ventured to the desert to hang his own shingle. “I didn’t know what to expect. I went down there with a lot of Grants Pass horses,” said Gibson, whose uncle Vince Gibson is also a trainer based at Emerald. “My hope was to come out of there with better horses and have a stronger meet in Seattle. I thought I did pretty good. I went down there with some horses that ended up winning a few races for me and I ended up getting a new owner down there, so it was a win for me. I did better down there than I thought and ended up coming up here with some better horses.” Gibson won just 4 of 43 races at last year’s Emerald meet. But at Turf Paradise, he went 15 for 65 for a more-than-respectable 23.8 percent strike rate. And at both tracks, his in-the-money percentage wasn’t too shabby, hovering just below 50 percent. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. Emerald, which began its 51-date meet this past Sunday, will attract a large crowd on Saturday, mostly due to the Kentucky Derby simulcast. On the live and local card, Gibson has a few horses who will have a chance to win. Those would be Adios Jojo in race 3, Company’s Dream in race 6, and G Dawg in race 2, a 5 1/2-furlong claiming race with a purse of $9,000. “He’s never ran a bad race, so I feel he’s in the right spot,” Gibson said of G Dawg, who’s by 2018 Longacres Mile winner Barkley. “He’s a 3-year-old, so there’s room for improvement. He’s just one of those hard-knocking horses.” Blaine Wright, second among Emerald trainers in wins last year while having a dual presence in California, doesn’t have a horse in race 2 but will compete against Gibson in races 3 and 6. In race 3, a five-furlong sprint for 3-year-old maidens, he saddles Goin’ South, who’s finished second three times in five starts. His last-out Beyer Speed Figure of 52 is the best in the eight-horse field, in which he also owns the most experience. “The horse has had ample opportunity to get it done and hasn’t quite taken the bull by the horns,” Wright said. “We’re trying to take advantage of a straight 3-year-old race because they’ve been carding the maiden special weights for 3 and up. He’s a Cal-bred and I don’t think he’ll fit down south. We’ve got 50 days of racing, so we’re basically five to six starts with these horses. We’re just trying to place them where we can compete.” Uncle Leon and Square Cat are the Wright trainees entered in race 6, a six-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds and up with a purse of $16,000. Uncle Leon has finished in the money five times in six Emerald Downs starts. “He’s a horse we claimed for the starter series last year, and he hasn’t disappointed us at all. I don’t want to sit and five-eighth these horses to death. They need to run, not sit in the barn,” Wright said. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.