The 2 week meet at Santa Rosa has concluded and it was filled with ups and downs. The first 5 days of racing had solid and competitive cards. However the last 3 days were plagued by small field sizes and nearly all the races taken off the turf, including the 50k Robert Dupret Derby. Now, I do not fully know if this was the reason for being “off the turf”, but I heard it was because the divots on the turf course were too deep and could not be fixed to a level that was safe enough to ride on. Very disappointing considering that it only gets used 8 days out of the year. One thing that was encouraging was that the crowds on the weekends were big and attendance numbers had to have been pretty strong. Hopefully this year was an outlier and we see things return back to normal next year.
The jockey and trainer standings were a nail-biter, as both titles were decided in the final race of the meet. Fabriana (Tamayo/Frey) and Wish You Were Mine (Hollendorfer/Orozco) dueled it out in the stretch, but ultimately Fabriana was able to pull away late. Congratulations to both Isidro Tamayo and Kyle Frey on their meet titles.
After a few subpar runs this year, Stakes winner Bella Luma was looking to rebound in the 50k Luther Burbank Handicap. As the gates opened she broke well from the rail and with nobody keen on going early, the Ed Moger trainee found herself inheriting the lead. It was a leisurely pace to say the least, and jockey Silvio Amador did a great job slowing things down up front and getting the 9/1 shot into a comfortable stride. She set fractions of 23.76 for the 1/4, 49.09 for the 1/2, and 1:13.41 for 3/4s. The daughter of Minister’s Wildcat dug in gamely and held off a late charging bid from the even-money favorite Ziarah. The final time for the 1 1/16m Luther Burbank Handicap was 1:43.51.
The Robert Dupret Derby had a small but competitive field this year, and with it moving to the main track, it became anyone’s race. The Texas shipper Tiz Plus was able to get the job done under Irving Orozco for trainer Manny Badilla. The son of Tizway is continuing to improve as he has now won 3 races in a row. Per DRF, I learned that Tiz Plus’ owners are from nearby city Rhonert Park, and shipped him all the way in from Texas to compete in the Robert Dupret Derby. He held off a late run from favorite Contagion to win by a head– the final time for the 1 1/16m race on the main track was 1:44.25. Tiz Plus now heads back to Texas, where he will reunite with his original trainer Mindy Willis.
One thing that I noticed, was that the main track played very strongly to the rail/inside on Aug 1-4 & Aug 8. It seemed like it was a huge advantage to be on the inside and it is something to note for your future handicapping. It will be very interesting to see how these horses run back. From Aug 9-11, it seemed to play more fair and even.
Racing now transitions to the Summer Meet at Golden Gate Fields on August 15th, while the fair circuit heads to Ferndale on August 16th.
NorCal Horse Racing News 