Clair Annette, a 7 year old that seems to get better with age, will attempt to defend her title in the $50,000 Hastings Handicap for fillies and mares on Sunday, May 2.

The 15th running of the six-furlong Hastings will be the first of 31 stakes races at the 2010 Emerald Downs’ meeting. The added-money schedule is worth $1,760,000, with the 75th running of the $250,000 Longacres Mile (G3) on Aug. 22 the richest race on the slate.

The Hastings Handicap, Emerald Downs’ annual salute to its British Columbia neighbors, is the first of five events on the road to the $75,000 Emerald Distaff. The track’s marquee event for older fillies and mares, the 1 1/8-mile distaff is the co-feature on Longacres Mile day.

Clair Annette won stakes both short and long last year for owner Nina Egbert and trainer Connie Bouslaugh. The Beau Genius mare captured the Hastings in a stakes-tying 1 minute, 8 3/5 seconds and she returned from a three-month layoff to score by 1-½ lengths in the 1 1/16-mile Belle Roberts on Washington Cup day. The track’s Top Claimer in 2008, Clair Annette has won 7-of-12 starts at Emerald Downs.

No Flies On Doodle, a double stakes winner as a 3-year-old, made a smooth transition into the older filly and mare ranks with a neck victory over Kaweah Princess in the opening night feature at 5 ½ furlongs. The Storm Blast filly has won 5-of-8 starts for Vann Belvoir, and something will have to give, as she also prefers to run on the front end.

Trainer Blaine Wright and owners John and Janene Maryanski hold a pair of aces with veteran Washington-bred Gadget Queen (28-8-9-3-$243,960) and newcomer Hallelujah Trail (9-4-2-1-$96,850). The latter, a 4-year-old Kentucky-bred by Gilded Time, adds even more fuel to the pace fire, coming off a close fourth in the Grade III Las Flores Handicap at Santa Anita.