Bay Meadows: It's Yougottawanna

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Yougottawanna ($4.60) controlled the pace while relaxing nicely on the lead and scored a victory in the Grade 3, $86,250 Seabiscuit Breeders' Cup Handicap.

Yougottawanna, recently re-claimed by trainer Jerry Hollendorfer for $80,000, beat stablemate Gold Ruckus by three-quarters of a length and was timed in 1:40.08 for the 1 1/16-mile race. It was Hollendorfer's fifth stakes victory of the meeting, and the third in which Hollendorfer runners have finished one-two.

Yougottawanna defeated Officer in the Cal Cup Juvenile as a 2-year-old, and won the Grade 3 El Camino Real Derby the next year. He was claimed for $50,000 three races back on a day when he won by eight. Yougottawanna ran second in the Grade 3 Berkeley Breeders' Cup Handicap in his next start, then was claimed from a win in an $80,000 claimer in his last start.

"At the time, he needed to be running for $50,000," Hollendorfer said. "The day he won, he got confidence. The time before when he lost by a head," on Feb. 7 to Jets Fan, "he ran well. Anybody who tells you he's not unhappy when he loses a horse that wins by eight is lying."

Hollendorfer said that when new owner Peter Redekop asked about claiming Yougottawanna, "I just told him the way the horse was running it was worth taking him back."

Yougottawanna sat in front of Reba's Gold while setting comfortable fractions of 23.25 seconds, 46.05, and 1:09.49. Reba's Gold, making his first start since October, tried to move up near the quarter pole but began to fade.

"At the quarter pole, he had another gear," said Russell Baze, who rode Yougottawanna. "At the sixteenth, he tired a little bit, but he wasn't giving up."

Gold Ruckus, who rated in third, made a strong move along the rail and closed a bit without seriously threatening his stablemate. Snorter was third, another three lengths back, with Reba's Gold fourth and Calkins Road fifth.

Yougottawanna earned $41,230 and now has career earnings of $472,054 from seven wins in 25 starts.