“PART 2” OF THE ENDLESS SUMMER MEET BEGINS FRIDAY
Live racing resumes on Friday with a 7-race card that kicks off “Part 2” of the Endless Summer Meet at Golden Gate Fields. First post each day at the upcoming meet is 1:45 PM unless otherwise noted.
For Friday’s “Opening Day” program, 56 horses were entered to compete. Saturday’s card attracted 58 entries and Sunday drew 65 entrants.
The signature event of the meeting is the Rolling Green Stakes on September 6. The Rolling Green, for 3-year-olds and upward at one mile and a sixteenth on turf, is likely to include 2020 winner Camino Del Paraiso. Nominations for the race close at midnight tonight and will be published tomorrow afternoon.
Fans who wish to attend the races on-track can purchase tickets online at Goldengatefields.com or through walk-up admission “at the door.” The popular Golden Gate Fields Turf Club also re-opens at limited capacity on weekends starting this Saturday, August 28. Advance tickets (which can be purchased on Golden Gate’s official website) are required. No walk-up admission will be sold for the Turf Club.
JOCKEY AGENT NAVARRO STAYING BUSY AT TWO MAJOR CALIFORNIA TRACKS
Benjamin Franklin once said, “Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”
It’s a motto that you could say jockey agent Fernando “Shoes” Navarro tries to live by. Every morning, the 34-year-old Bay Area native wakes up well before the sun rises and springs into action.
Anybody who works on a backstretch in horse racing holds the same mentality: when the alarm goes off, it’s time to work.
Navarro, who normally carries two jockeys at Golden Gate Fields, expanded his business to four riders at two separate racetracks this summer after Golden Gate Winter/Spring meet leading jockey Kyle Frey opted to ride in Southern California for the boutique Del Mar summer meet. Since the move, Navarro picked up a second Southern California rider in apprentice Emily Ellingwood. Navarro continues to hustle book at Golden Gate for Irving Orozco and Assael Espinoza. Official California racetrack rules state that jockey agents may represent two riders per racetrack.
“[Kyle and I] went down to Del Mar to ride for one week,” said Navarro. “That was the plan. We had a little bit of success early and some people caught on. It went from, ‘Hey we got some more calls next week, let’s stay one more week,’ to ‘Hey, we got even more calls this third week. Let’s just see where this takes us.’”
Heading into Friday, Frey is tied for sixth in the Del Mar standings with 11 first-place finishes from 98 mounts. Frey picked up his first Del Mar stakes win on July 23 with 3-year-old filly I’m So Anna in the $150,000 Fleet Treat Stakes. The win also marked Navarro’s first Del Mar stakes victory as an agent.
Throughout any given workday, Navarro is in constant contact with trainers from both Northern and Southern California while also scouting out potential pick up mounts. Navarro makes plenty of phone calls throughout the day, checking with trainers for opportunities and communicating with his riders in what consists of a busy, full day’s work. Navarro, along with hustling mounts for races, is also responsible for scheduling “workers”, or horses to breeze every morning, for each of his riders.
Navarro is busiest on “entry day.” Entry days are scheduled days in which entries for a future race program are drawn and posted to the public (ex: entries for Saturday race cards are submitted, and post positions drawn, on Wednesday).
Entry day festivities go as follows…
“In the mornings, I’m on the phone with a lot of people before I even leave the house,” said Navarro. “I usually talk to the Golden Gate people first. I’ve been at Del Mar every week, so I’m on the phone when I’m talking to the Northern California trainers, and I make my rounds [to the barns] at Del Mar.
Usually, Southern California draws their cards first,” continued Navarro. “Once we draw post positions for Del Mar, then I’m 100% focused on the entries at Golden Gate. The schedule is good to where Del Mar doesn’t overlap with Golden Gate. I fly back home to Northern California every week and go to the backside at Golden Gate on Tuesdays.”
Navarro said working horses in the morning and making impactful relationships is crucial. This especially rings true when riders and agents enter a new circuit.
“You have to be seen out there,” said Navarro. “Me being new to So Cal…I have relationships with horsemen from when they ship horses to Golden Gate, but I have to build these relationships further. It helps that Kyle won some races early in the [Del Mar] meet and people took notice.
We’re building up business and we’ve ridden for good barns,” added Navarro. “Richard Baltas, Peter Miller, Mark Glatt, Michael McCarthy, Simon Callaghan…Phil D’Amato and John Sadler are giving us a few calls. If we work hard and do well in the afternoon, that leads to more business. Kyle is showing up every morning-I mean every morning-and working horses.”
So how does Navarro manage the rigorous workload?
“It took me a little while getting used to juggling the [extra] work,” said Navarro. “I got the hang of things and we’re good now. The key is staying organized. Being a jockey agent, some days are better than others. You’ve gotta give it your best, pay attention and let the chips fall where they may.”
FIRST-TIME STARTERS ADD INTRIGUE TO 2-YEAR-OLD ALLOWANCE RACE FOR FILLIES ON SUNDAY
On Sunday, a field of five square off in the feature race at Golden Gate: a first level allowance for 2-year-old fillies. Three participants-Code Ribbon, Light Up and Miss Union-have all broken their maidens. The two runners who fill the field are complete unknowns.
How is that, you may ask?
The answer is simple. Neither have run in a race before.
The Arcadian Way, a $60,000 sale purchase from the Blaine Wright barn, draws the rail and makes her career debut against proven winners. She is a half-sibling to 4-time stakes winner Madone, who beat Del Mar Oaks winner Going Global in the Grade 2 San Clemente Stakes in July. Madone sports a 5 for 8 lifetime record, with career earnings of $337,800. Four other siblings to The Arcadian Way won sprinting and their dam, a Cherokee Run mare named Indian Love Call, was most effective going a route of ground. The Arcadian Way is by Australian-bred Astern, a Medaglia D’Oro stallion who raced on turf in Australia and won four stakes, including one Group 1 race in 2016.
Delia Mo, a filly by Outwork, also takes on winners as a first-time starter. A $20,000 sale purchase, Delia Mo is another that has shown promising works heading into Sunday’s second race. Her dam, the Red Ransom mare Redmeansgo, was a router on turf and dirt and stakes placed once as a 5-year-old. She earned just over $113,000 in her 14-race career. Delia Mo is a half sibling to six other winners from seven foals produced by Redmeansgo, including Grade 3 placed mare Pappascat.
The known commodities are simple to analyze. Code Ribbon makes her first career start on Tapeta after a two-and-a-half length win against maiden special weight foes over dirt at Pleasanton on July 17. The second-place finisher in the aforementioned race, Fire Escape, came right back to win her next start. Light Up is another who won her first career start at Pleasanton, defeating a different field of maiden special weight runners. Miss Union, a three and ¾ length winner of a maiden claimer at Golden Gate, earned the best Beyer speed figure out of the threesome of winners and enters this run with two workouts since the maiden victory.
Post time for Race 2 on Sunday is approximately 2:15 PM PT. 9-races are on the docket. Along with Race 2, the co-features on the day include a first level allowance race that picked up 11 entries (Race 8), and a race of similar condition for fillies and mares on turf (Race 7).
DEL MAR WATCH LIST
Below are a list of Golden Gate horses racing at Del Mar this week:
Thursday
Race 4: #8 Hydro Frost (Jockey Edwin Maldonado…Trainer Quinn Howey)
Race 7: #3 Pappy Boyington (Juan Hernandez…Steve Miyadi)
Race 8: #1 Emma’s Dance (Kyle Frey…Ed Moger Jr.)
Friday
Race 2: #3 Illapawnie (Jonathan Wong…Jessica Pyfer)
Race 2: #7 American Bourbon (Kyle Frey…Jonathan Wong)
Saturday
Race 2: #2 Father O’Flaherty (Jonathan Wong…Kyle Frey)
Race 3: #6 Minehunter (Andy Mathis…Diego Herrera)
Race 11: #10 U.S. Danger (Jonathan Wong…Kyle Frey)
FINISH LINES: Happy birthday to XBTV’s Zoe Cadman, who celebrates her birthday today. Earlier this year, Cadman was a guest analyst on the Golden Gate simulcast feed for El Camino Real Derby Day and Gold Rush Weekend…Good luck to Ivan Becerra, Bruce Dillenbeck, Terri Eaton, Gary Greiner, Quinn Howey, Sergio Ledezma, Melanie McDonald, Jerry Puertas, Isidro Tamayo and Jamie Thomas, all who campaign horses in races at Ferndale this week. A large majority of these horses are Golden Gate shippers…Trainer Ed Moger Jr. saddles Iowa Derby winner Stilletto Boy in the $100,000 Shared Belief Stakes at Del Mar on Sunday. Stilletto Boy, purchased by Ed’s brother Steve Moger for $420,000 after the Iowa Derby triumph, ran fifth on turf in the La Jolla Handicap in his first start for the Moger stable…Albany Stakes winner Give Me the Lute ran second in last week’s $100,000 Green Flash Handicap for turf sprinters at Del Mar. The Andy Mathis trained gelding finished as the runner up behind Lieutenant Dan, who coincidentally won an allowance race at Golden Gate in 2019 and ran third in the Silky Sullivan Stakes that same year. Lieutenant Dan is trained by Steve Miyadi…After the 2-week period Wine Country Racing Meet, Golden Gate now returns to our traditional wagers (ex: 50-Cent Early Pick 5 with a low 14% takeout, 20-Cent Golden Pick Six jackpot wager, etc.).