SHERMAN BARN SHINES IN WIN-FILLED RACING WEEK
Trainer Steve Sherman and his team had an unbelievable span of wins last week, picking up 7 first-place finishes from 13 starters. Among the accomplishments: a pair of three-win days on Thursday and Sunday, and a feature-race victory on Saturday with stakes-winning sprinter Hollywood Hills.
On Thursday, Sherman won a trio of races: Race 1 with Palm D’Oro, Race 5 with Crack a Cold One, and Race 7 with Cutetip. Sherman mentioned that Palm D’Oro, who was previously trained by his father Art, was an especially fun horse to win with.
“It’s always fun to work with my dad,” said Sherman. “I was his assistant for many years when he was training up here. We must’ve won a couple thousand races together and over the years we were lucky enough to take care of some really nice horses. My dad is a pure racetracker. He loves the game and loves training. He’s been doing it for over 60 years. He thought [Palm D’Oro] would need some class relief and figured coming up here would help her.”
Sherman won the feature race on Saturday, a second level allowance for filly and mare sprinters, with 5-year-old mare Hollywood Hills. The George Krikorian homebred has shown an affinity for the Golden Gate Tapeta main track, having now won six times from 10 starts, with three other in-the-money finishes over the surface.
“She really likes being [at Golden Gate],” said Sherman. “She has a great record on the Tapeta. I think she likes it up here and enjoys training up here. We’re going to run her next in the Camilla Urso Stakes on turf [on Saturday, April 24]. There’s always a lot of speed in those turf sprints so she’ll get a pace to run at and she ran a really good second in a stake on turf as a 3-year-old at Santa Anita, so the surface won’t be an issue.”
On Sunday, Sherman saddled three runners and won with all of them. Counting Cards, a 4-year-old gelding trying routing for the first time, bumped up from maiden claiming company to the maiden special weight ranks and scored an upset in Race 3, defeating a pair of even money co-favorites. Class-dropper Grinningeartoear beat a salty group of higher-level, hard-knocking claimers in Race 8, and Mecklenburg picked up his second win in a row in the nightcap, a first-level allowance.
“I figured Counting Cards would like routing because I haven’t seen a lot of giddy-up in his step when he works,” said Sherman. “I thought routing would be a lot easier on him and he’d stay on well, which he did. Grinningeartoear breezed really well in her final workout before her race and I thought she had a big chance to win as long as she took to the Tapeta.”
“Mecklenberg] is really improving,” continued Sherman. “You can just see him getting better and better. The main thing with him is getting him to settle. We have a little trouble with him into the first turn-he gets keen early on in his races. If we can get him to settle on the first turn like he does on the backside and the far turn, I think he’s going to be good. He’s got sneaky good breeding to be a good horse. We’ll run him in a second condition [allowance] next time at the end of April.”
When asked about his overall thoughts on last week’s success, Sherman was quick to answer the question.
“Things fell into place,” said Sherman. “As a trainer, you might think you have ‘live horses’ in races, but a lot of things come into play to actually win. You have to get lucky sometimes. This week, everything went really well. We got good post positions, we got good trips, the riders put up good rides and the horses ran their best.”
TURF RACING RESUMES ON THURSDAY
With the 2021 spring season well underway, turf racing will be back in play at Golden Gate beginning Thursday afternoon. A pair of turf races present themselves on Thursday and, on Friday, three more turf routes are scattered throughout an 8-race card. Two of the three Friday turf events have attracted double digit entrants (10 and 11, respectively) while the third route has nine.
Every year, Bay Area racing is run solely on Tapeta from January to early April. The hiatus in grass racing is for a couple of reasons. The Bay Area, for one, typically produces the most rain during the winter months. It also allows the track maintenance crew a chance to renovate and freshen up the course for the second half of the year.
“We’re going to move the [inner] rail as much as we can to keep the course fresh,” said Director of Racing/Racing Secretary Patrick Mackey. “We are also limiting the number of turf sprints this month and will gradually get back into writing more of those races as our meeting progresses.”
Horseplayers, as we know, are always game to play turf racing. With that in mind, riders of our equine athletes are equally delighted to ride in races over the grass. One of them is Kyle Frey, who leads the way in the jockey standings with 56 wins at the current meeting.
“I’m excited to get back to turf racing,” said Frey. “I look forward to seeing some of my horses improve on the turf. The turf looks beautiful right now and they’ve done a really good job getting it ready for this meet.”
Jockey William Antongeorgi III, who won the San Francisco Mile last year aboard Neptune’s Storm, echoed Frey’s message on the condition of the course.
“The turf course looks great from what I can see,” said Billy. “Hopefully getting back to turf brings in some good competition. The course here plays fair; horses can win from well off of it, wire-to-wire, stalking, mid-pack. Anybody can win.”
Jockey Irving Orozco, like his fellow riders, also expressed eagerness to get back to the grass course.
“I’m really excited to get back to turf racing,” said Orozco. “Some of the horses, they find their best stride on the grass. The [Golden Gate Fields turf] course reminds me of a European-style turf track because the grass is a little bit longer. I’ve had some good success on this course in recent years and it’ll be fun to get back out there.”
GRADE I WINNER KEEPER OFTHE STARS MAKES 2021 DEBUT IN SATURDAY FEATURE
5-year-old mare Keeper Ofthe Stars makes her 2021 debut in Race 8 on Saturday, an allowance race for fillies and mares at one mile and a sixteenth on turf. The daughter of Midnight Lute won the Grade I Gamely at Santa Anita last May and has not competed in the afternoon since a pair of off-the-board finishes last summer.
“She’s a classy mare,” said trainer Jonathan Wong. “This is a good prep for a stake race next time. I think she’ll get a lot out of this race conditioning wise.”
Before the aforementioned Grade I score, Keeper Ofthe Stars won two other stakes races: The Grade 3 Autumn Miss in 2019 and the Grade 2 Beuna Vista in February of last year. In June of 2019, Keeper Ofthe Stars won an allowance race at Golden Gate and broke the track record that day, stopping the clock for 8.5 furlongs on turf in 1:40.55 seconds. The record still stands today.
Keeper Ofthe Stars, owned by Tommy Town Thoroughbreds, will be guided by jockey Evin Roman for the first time. Other major players entered in Race 8 are Sloane Garden, winner of the Luther Burbank Stakes and Golden Poppy Stakes last year, multiple stakes-placed mare Heathers Grey, and multiple second-level allowance winner Northwest Factor.
10 races are scheduled for Saturday, with first post at the normal 1:20 PM time slot.
Race 8: Allowance for fillies and mares (one mile and a sixteenth on turf)
#1 Babe Didrikson (Jockey Alejandro Gomez, Trainer Jose Bautista)
#2 Sloane Garden (Frank Alvarado, Manny Badilla)
#3 Heathers Grey (Kyle Frey, Sean McCarthy)
#4 Gettin Sideways (Santos Rivera, Dan Markle)
#5 Keeper Ofthe Stars (Evin Roman, Jonathan Wong)
#6 Northwest Factor (Irving Orozco, Manny Badilla)
CLAIMS REPORT
Below are a list of claims from last week:
Thursday
Race 3: Bigfoot City (New trainer Tim McCanna…New owner Royal Victory Thoroughbreds LLC)
Race 4: Four O’Five (Terry Johnson…Laurie Johnson)
Race 5: Crack a Cold One (Jonathan Wong…Madden Racing, Cynthia Kahuanui & Kim Medearis)
Race 5: Surprise Fashion (Angelo Tekos Jr…Steve Dietrich)
FRIDAY
No claims
Saturday
No claims
Sunday
Race 1: Dark Saber (Salvador Naranjo…Silvia Soto)
Race 1: Final Rose (Blaine Wright…Wright Racing Stable and Steve Meme)
Race 2: Union Smartie (Frank Lucarelli…William Meikle)
Race 8: Persuasive Lips (Tim Bellasis…O’Gorman, O’Gorman, Tschanz and Bellasis)
Race 9: More Power to Him (Jonathan Wong…Madden Racing)
FINISH LINES: 2021 El Camino Real Derby winner Rombauer runs in the $800,000 Grade 2 Bluegrass Stakes at Keeneland this Saturday. Trainer Michael McCarthy employs jockey Florent Geroux to ride from post position 5…2020 Snow Chief Stakes winner Indian Peak has been transferred back to trainer Quinn Howey after a stint in Southern California with conditioner Brian Koriner. He competes at Golden Gate in Race 9 on Saturday, a second-level allowance. Among the main contenders entered are Southern California stakes winner Encoder, Cono (a half-sibling to Rombauer), stakes-placed gelding and recent allowance winner Sacred Rider, and stakes winner American Farmer…Newly turned 3-year-old colt Top Harbor returns to the races for trainer Tim McCanna on Saturday in the $150,000 Echo Eddie Stakes for California-breds at Santa Anita. As a 2-year-old, Top Harbor won the Everett Nevin Stakes at Pleasanton and has been working steadily at Golden Gate in preparation for his 3-year-old debut. Top Harbor is out of the stakes-winning mare Reba Is Tops, who has produced 5 winners from 5 foals…Trainer Steve Sherman sends out 2020 Pike Place Dancer Stakes winner I’m So Anna in the $150,000 Evening Jewel Stakes for California-bred 3-year-olds fillies at Santa Anita on Saturday….Also entered in the Evening Jewel is Maybe I Will, conditioned by Brendan Galvin. The California-bred daughter of Will Take Charge tries stakes company after a decisive allowance win at Golden Gate three weeks ago…Happy birthday to trainer Ed Moger Jr., who celebrates his birthday on Monday…$37,892 is carried over into the Golden Pick Six jackpot wager heading into Thursday’s card…Leg E of the Stronach 5 wager goes as Race 4 at Golden Gate on Friday.