Albany, Calif. (April 29, 2017) — Alert Bay, trained by Blaine Wright, pressed the leader before digging in to win the $100,000 GIII San Francisco Mile. This is the first time in 59 years that a horse has won back to back San Francisco Miles; the last time it happened was in 1957 and 1958, and it was accomplished by a horse named Battle Dance. The San Francisco Mile was for three year olds and upwards, at a distance of 1 mile on the turf, and was completed in 1:35.12.
Many Roses, trained by Ellen Jackson, set the pace early in the race, but was once again outkicked, leaving fans empty handed. G. G. Ryder stalked the pace and in a driving finish, nipped Many Roses to take second. The remaining horses finished 7 lengths off the leaders. Alert Bay, the heavy betting favorite at race time, paid $3.20 for today’s efforts.
“It is pretty neat to wake up and see him every day. I am very thankful for him. He is a once in a lifetime for me. When I read it hadn’t been done back to back in 59 years, I got awfully nervous. I thought it was a walk over for us, but I know that there are good horses and trainers, and they’re going to give us a fight. So I feel very lucky to be standing here. I felt pretty confident the whole way, but I just needed to know what G. G. Ryder was going to do. Hollendorfer sent him off the pace and we kind of figured that if he went hard from the one hole, we would know what the four horse was going to do and we could back off of him. And I told Juan we got to be the ones to put the pace on the four horse if that horse don’t go. And with our post position it worked out to our advantage,” said trainer Blaine Wright.
“I was just having fun with him. He broke fast. I was sitting waiting for the stretch to make my move. When I saw the cutoff point, I asked him and he started running again. He’s a really good horse. He does everything. Yeah, no one was passing – so I stuck close,” said jockey Juan Hernandez.
Tomorrow, April 30, is Dollar Day; enjoy a $1 Mimosa, $1 Beer, $1 Hot Dog, $1 General Admission, $1 General Parking, and $1 Program all day long.