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After concluding a successful fall meet, Golden Gate Fields is set to begin with their Winter/Spring meet. It begins on December 26, 2018 and ends on June 9, 2019. There are many things to look forward to, including a revamped stakes schedule.

The top 3 year old race in Northern California is the El Camino Real Derby (February 16). Many horses in years’ past have used it to catapult themselves towards the Kentucky Derby and other Triple Crown races. However, the frequency of seeing El Camino runners in Triple Crown races has dropped off significantly– we should begin to see a change in this as there is a whole new twist to the race this year. While 10 Kentucky Derby Points are still up for grabs to the winner, it is now a Win And You’re In race for the G1 Preakness Stakes. There have been 4 winners of the El Camino Real that went on to win the 2nd leg of the Triple Crown, with the most recent being Tabasco Cat in 1994. This added incentive should attract a lot of horses from Southern California to compete this year.

There are some (soon to be) 3 year olds to look out for that could make some noise in the El Camino Real Derby. The first place to start out with is with the Gold Rush Stakes (Dec 1; race 7) winner, Sueno. Sueno is trained by Keith Desormeaux and is a rapidly improving son of Atreides. He appears to just be tapping into his potential. The next horse to keep an eye out for is the Jonathan Wong trained Mayor Cobb– he is by New Years Day out of a El Prado mare and has improved in each start to date. He ran 3rd behind Sueno in the Gold Rush after having a wide trip throughout. The third and final prospect I am going to talk about is Anothertwistafate. While he didn’t run much at all in the career debut down south at Santa Anita, he and his conditioner Blaine Wright regrouped and came back in a MSW (Dec 9th; race 6) going 2 turns over the Tapeta at Golden Gate Fields where he won impressively. The route helped him a lot, as he has got a big long stride to him. Also, being by Scat Daddy, he should be able to handle any surface. This is one of the deeper 2yo (colts and fillies) crops I’ve seen at Golden Gate Fields in quite some time. 

As part of the new stakes schedule, Golden Gate Fields is going to rollout the first addition of what they call “Gold Rush Weekend”. This stacked weekend of racing is on April 27-28th and is filled with 8 stakes races. On Saturday the 27th, there will be 6 stakes: 250k G3 San Francisco Mile (3yo Up 1m T), 100k California Derby (3yo 1 1/16m), 100k California Oaks (3yo F 1 1/16m), 75k Golden Poppy (3yo Up F&M 1 1/16m T), 75k Lost in the Fog (4yo Up 6f), 75k Camilla Urso (4yo Up F&M 5f T). On Sunday the 28th, there will be 2 stakes for 3yo Cal-breds: 100k Silky Sullivan (3yo 1m T), 100k Campanile (3yo F 1m T). “Gold Rush Weekend” is going to be the strongest weekend of racing that Northern California has seen in many years, and it should be able to attract horses from all across the US.

Rounding out the stakes schedule, will be the 75k Alcatraz Stakes (3yo 1m T) on May 19, the 100k G3 All American (3yo Up 1m) on May 27, and the 50k Albany Stakes (3yo Up 5f T) on June 8.

The rider and trainer titles are expected to be very competitive as there is a lot of competition in the jocks room and on the backside. Coming off titles in the fall meet were trainer Johnathan Wong and jockey William Antongeorgi III. Wong hit at a strong 28%–he entered the winner circle 28 times from 101 starters. Antongeorgi won an impressive 36 races from 199 mounts as he was able to secure the title by 1 win over Abel Cedillo. 

There are a lot of things to look forward to throughout the winter/spring meet at Golden Gate Fields, and everything will be covered right here on NorCal Horse Racing News. Feel free to follow us on twitter for more coverage and insight on racing in Northern California: @NorCalHRNews https://twitter.com/NorCalHRNews