Golden Gate Fields capped off their Winter/Spring meet on Sunday June 9th. A total of 23 races were run on Saturday and Sunday, giving fans a great send-off into the summer. I do not have the total meet handle numbers yet, but I would have to think that they continued the trend of yearly handle increase. There were many highlights from the Winter/Spring meet, and I am going to go over them below.
For the first time in a very long time, we saw a Northern California based horse make a lot of noise on the Kentucky Derby Trail. Anothertwistafate’s dominant win in the El Camino Real Derby was a performance that the locals are going to remember for a long time. He would rebound out of the El Camino to run 2nd in both the G3 Sunland Derby and the G3 Lexington Stakes. While things did not go as planned by not getting into the Kentucky Derby, it was still great to see him running on the national stage and representing Northern California in the G1 Preakness. He is currently getting a little break, but I would imagine we could see him on the work tab in the next few weeks. His trainer Blaine Wright has done a tremendous job with him so far. There are many options for Anothertwistafate on both dirt and turf surfaces over the remainder of the year.
Also, we saw the unveiling of a new stakes-filled weekend of racing at Golden Gate Fields. Gold Rush Weekend was comprised of 8 stakes races and was headlined by the $250k G3 San Francisco Mile. It was really awesome to see Golden Gate Fields be apart of the national racing chatter– it was a weekend that many across the country were looking forward to. Both TVG and XBTV were live on-site during the week. Attendance was strong and total handle was over $12.6 million for the 2 days. Gold Rush Weekend was a big success in it’s inaugural running, and I am looking forward to next year’s.
Here is a list of all the Stakes winners from the Winter/Spring meet.
El Camino Real Derby- Anothertwistafate T: Blaine Wright J: Juan Hernandez
California Oaks- Sold It T: Doug O’Neill J: Mario Gutierrez
California Derby- Kingly T: Bob Baffert J: Mario Gutierrez
Golden Poppy Stakes- Simply Breathless T: Neil Drysdale J: Flavien Prat
Camilla Urso Stakes- S Y Sky T: Phil D’Amato J: Flavien Prat
Lost in the Fog Stakes- Anyportinastorm T: Blaine Wright J: Juan Hernandez
G3 San Francisco Mile- Blitzkreig T: Doug O’Neill J: Rafael Bejarano
Campanile Stakes- Kitty Boom Boom T: Richard Baltas J: Geovanni Franco
Silky Sullivan Stakes- Irish Heatwave T: Keith Desormeaux J: Irving Orozco
Alcatraz Stakes- Visitant T: John Martin J: William Antongeorgi
G3 All American Stakes- Grecian Fire T: Jerry Hollendorfer J: William Antongeorgi
Albany Stakes- Mikes Tiznow T: Andy Mathis J: Ricardo Gonzalez
After missing by 1 win in the fall meet’s jockey standings, Abel Cedillo was able to keep his hot hand going by winning this meet’s title. Also, Jonathan Wong has now won his 4th straight training title at Golden Gate Fields. He won this year’s by an impressive 48 win margin! In the hotly contested owner standings, Carrol Stubbs held on by 2 wins– she finished with 13 total. Congratulations to all the meet leaders!
Trainer Standings
| Starts | Wins | 2nds | 3rds | Win % | ITM % | Earnings | |
| Jonathan Wong | 318 | 90 | 66 | 39 | 28 | 61 | $1,379,497 |
| Jerry Hollendorfer | 216 | 42 | 37 | 39 | 19 | 55 | $906,369 |
| John F. Martin | 145 | 37 | 29 | 27 | 26 | 64 | $537,046 |
Jockey Standings
| Starts | Wins | 2nds | 3rds | Win % | ITM % | Earnings | |
| Abel Cedillo | 571 | 134 | 115 | 80 | 23 | 58 | $2,273,252 |
| Juan J. Hernandez | 445 | 104 | 86 | 76 | 23 | 60 | $2,031,849 |
| William Antongeorgi III | 508 | 77 | 65 | 76 | 15 | 43 | $1,459,398 |
Owner Standings
| Starts | Wins | 2nds | 3rds | Win % | ITM % | Earnings | |
| Carrol Stubbs | 86 | 13 | 12 | 13 | 15 | 44 | $162,265 |
| Steve Moger | 89 | 11 | 18 | 9 | 12 | 43 | $245,139 |
| Patricia’s Hope LLC | 19 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 53 | 79 | $89,060 |
Shout out to both Uber Star and Dom the Bomb for each having 5 wins during the Winter/Spring meet.
Racing will return to Golden Gate Fields for the start of the Summer Meet on August 15th. Stay tuned to the blog and twitter page as we will keep you updated on all things NorCal racing.
NorCal Horse Racing News 