Alert Bay to skip All American, stick to turf

Fifteen runners were nominated for Monday’s Grade 3, $100,000 All American at Golden Gate Fields, but there’s one familiar name missing.

Alert Bay, the winner of the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile, was not nominated to the All American.

That is no surprise. Trainer Blaine Wright had suggested after the San Francisco Mile on turf April 30 that Alert Bay was unlikely to run in the All American, which is for 3-year-olds and up going a mile on the Tapeta. Alert Bay had his first work after the San Francisco Mile only last Saturday, when he blistered a half-mile in 46.80 seconds, the best of the 40 works at the distance here that morning. Wright said he “looked super.”

Wright is weighing two one-mile turf stakes at Santa Anita for Alert Bay’s next start, the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile on June 4 or the Crystal Water for California-breds on June 11.

“He’s not as good on synthetic,” Wright said, pointing to Alert Bay’s second-place finish to Docs Legacy in an April 9 prep for the San Francisco Mile. “We felt like we should stick with turf.”

Alert Bay ran third in the Grade 3 Longacres Mile at Emerald Downs last year, and Wright said he would like to try that race again. Run on dirt, the Longacres Mile is scheduled for Aug. 14.

There will be plenty of familiar faces in the All American even without Alert Bay. Jerry Hollendorfer plans to saddle three runners, including G. G. Ryder and Outside Nashville, who finished one-two in the race last year. His other runner is Southern Freedom, who is 3 for 7 at Golden Gate.

Docs Legacy and Eagle Screams are expected to run. Docs Legacy has two wins and a second by a nose in his last three main-track starts here, and Eagle Screams handed Docs Legacy that nose defeat.

Poshsky, who came north last fall to win the Grade 3 Berkeley here, and Star Student, a sprint stakes winner here, also are among the nominees.

Eagle Screams will be making his first start for trainer Jonathan Wong, who claimed the 7-year-old Redattore gelding for $62,500 out of his Feb. 7 win over Docs Legacy. Wong said that he and owners Scott Herbertson and Deborah Kriletich claimed Eagle Screams to run him in the San Francisco Mile but decided to back off and allow some minor foot issues to heal.

“I’m looking forward to the race,” said Wong. “He really hadn’t had a break, and he seemed to come back a better horse.”

Eagle Screams ran fourth in last year’s edition of the All American and then ran second in the Oak Tree Handicap on dirt at Pleasanton and second in the Joseph T. Grace Handicap on turf at Santa Rosa. Wong is planning to run Eagle Screams in stakes on the fair circuit again this summer.

“We’ve got a fresh horse for Pleasanton and Santa Rosa,” he said.

Eagle Screams has a solid work tab, including a best-of-62 five-furlong work in 59.40 at Golden Gate on May 16.

Docs Legacy returns to the Tapeta after running seventh in the San Francisco Mile.

“I’ve never seen a horse like him on Tapeta,” said trainer Manny Badilla. “It just changes him. He has a nice turn of foot and extends better. On Tapeta, he’s just a little more of a standout.”

◗ Golden Gate Fields and parent company The Stronach Group will donate 4.88 acres of land to the East Bay Park District on June 7 at the district’s regular board meeting. The land, located behind the Golden Gate grandstand, runs beside San Francisco Bay from Albany Beach to Gilman Street in Berkeley. It will become part of the Bay Trail, a proposed 500-mile stretch encircling San Francisco Bay.