ALBANY, Calif. (Nov. 18, 2017)- Under the guidance of jockey Ricky Gonzalez, three-year-old gelding Right Hand Man sat off of speedy pacesetter Quick and Silver, pounced on that early leader turning for home and held off a late challenge from Mach One Rules to win the $50,000 Oakland Stakes for older sprinters at Golden Gate Fields.
Heading into The Oakland Stakes, the son of Street Boss had not raced since July, was making his first start as a gelding and had not visited the winner’s circle since a win in The Golden Nugget Stakes twelve months ago. Nonetheless, trainer Jeff Bonde was confident his trainee could be competitive.
“He’s been ready to run for quite some time,” said Bonde. “I’ve been entering him in races and none of them filled. I tried entering him everywhere: the [Northern California] fairs, Los Alamitos, Santa Anita, Del Mar. Nothing was going.”
“We had to remove a bone chip after his last race,” continued Bonde, when asked why Right Hand Man had not raced since July. “We gelded him to get some weight off him, too. He was a bit heavy. He’d been working great leading up to this race and I knew he was fit.”
After the winner’s circle photo, jockey Ricky Gonzalez praised Right Hand Man for his hard-trying effort.
“It was a beautiful trip,” said Gonzalez, who was all smiles after the stake win. “I had a lot of horse at the three-eighths pole and turning into the stretch. I knew it was just a matter of if somebody was going to come flying or not. I was very confident in my horse, though, and he showed a lot of class today.”
Mach One Rules, the 2017 Horse of the Year at Emerald Downs, sat fourth in the early going and came with a strong rally in the final furlong, surging at Right Hand Man late, but came up a nose short.
“He ran a big race,” said his rider, Pedro Terrero. “When he passed the eighth pole he put in a big kick but just ran out of ground. He’s a nice horse.”
“We’re really proud of him,” said Frank Lucarelli, who trains the Washington-bred son of Harbor the Gold. “If the race was just a few yards longer he would have won. Pedro rode him perfectly.”
Outside Nashville, one of three runners in the race for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, finished third while Star Student, a two-time winner of the Oakland Stakes, checked in fourth.
I Will Score broke from post position seven in The Oakland and was making his first start since winning The Grade 3 Laz Barrera Stakes 18 months ago at Santa Anita. The four-year-old colt missed the break and lost all chance at that point, according to jockey William Antongeorgi III.
“He slipped behind coming out of the gate and never recovered after that,” reported Antongeorgi. “He got a race into him and we’ll regroup.”
Right Hand Man has now earned $147,780 with four career wins, one second and one third from eight lifetime starts. He is owned by the partnership group Blinkers On Racing Stable and eight other individual partners. Right Hand Man completed the six furlongs in 1:09.39 seconds.
When asked about future plans for Right Hand Man, trainer Jeff Bonde replied, “We may have to go out of town. There are no more races for him here. We’ll find a good spot. He’s a good horse.”
-30-