Rooster City, second in three stakes races last season, battled to a half-length victory over Dixie Meister in Sunday’s $20,000 optional claiming feature for older horses at Emerald Downs.

With Seth Martinez riding at 121 pounds., Rooster City ran one mile in 1 minute, 35 2/5 seconds on a fast track and paid $4.40, $2.60, $2.40. Tim McCanna trains the winner for owner Victor Bahna Jr., of Kirkland.

Dixie Meister, a graded stakes winner on California, rallied to finish second under Inoel Beato at 120 pounds., and paid $5.20 and $3.60. It was an encouraging comeback for the 8-year-old Texas-bred gelding, whose last start was a sixth-place finish in the Budweiser-Emerald handicap on June 21, 2009.

Exclusive Eagle, ridden by Juan Gutierrez at 120 lbs., won a three-horse photo for third place and paid $3.80. He’s All Heart and Elusive Schemes, who dueled through six furlongs in 1:10 1/5, weakened slightly in the stretch to finish fourth and fifth, respectively, and Final Judgement was sixth and last.

A 4-year-old Kentucky-bred by City Zip, Rooster City has a 3-5-2 mark in 15 starts with earnings of $99,649, including $11,000 for Sunday’s victory. The bay gelding was the hard-luck horse in the 3-year-old division in 2009, finishing second in the Auburn Handicap, Tacoma Handicap and Emerald Derby. The latter race was a neck defeat to Winning Machine, who would be voted the track’s Top 3-year-old, and recently finished second to stablemate Noosa Beach in the Seattle Handicap.

Taken slightly off the pace by Martinez, Rooster City swept past the leaders in mid-stretch and then held Dixie Meister safe in the final yards. Although Rooster City came into bump Elusive Schemes in the stretch, the stewards made no change in the order of finish.