Alert Bay gets a freshening

ARCADIA, Calif. - Alert Bay is getting a vacation.

The winner of five consecutive races, all stakes, Alert Bay will have a 60-day break at a Northern California farm before returning for the second half of the year, trainer Blaine Wright said on Friday.

Alert Bay has won two stakes at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting – the Grade 2 Mathis Brothers Mile for 3-year-olds on turf on Dec. 26, and the $250,000 California Cup Turf Classic against statebreds at 1 1/8 miles on Jan. 24.

Wright said he envisions Alert Bay resuming racing in time for stakes at Del Mar in the summer and Santa Anita in the autumn.

“We don’t have any definite plans yet," he said.

Wright said that Alert Bay emerged from the Cal Cup Turf Classic “in real good shape."

"We could have gone on with it,” he said.

Alert Bay is owned by Peter Redekop and has won 8 of 14 starts and earned $754,707. His winning streak includes the British Columbia Derby and Premiers Handicap at Hastings Park, the Zia Park Derby in New Mexico, and the two stakes at Santa Anita.