Baze enjoying a fun-filled summer

Russell Baze said he had a “fun” day Sunday, and it wasn’t simply because he rode five winners at Golden Gate Fields.

Make no mistake: Baze, the world’s winningest rider, likes winning. But there was more than just the five wins – only two on favorites – that made the day special.

On Sunday morning, he accompanied the undefeated Look Quickly through an easy 47.80-second half-mile drill in her final prep before her return to racing Friday, when she’ll meet older rivals in an allowance sprint.

On Sunday afternoon, the world’s top exercise rider enjoyed Shared Belief’s dominant victory in the 1 1/4-mile, Grade 1 Pacific Classic. The son of undefeated Pacific Classic winner Candy Ride became a millionaire and improved his record to 6 for 6.

“That went exactly the way I knew it would,” Baze said.

Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer has kept Shared Belief at Golden Gate Fields for training purposes, and Baze is his exercise rider when he works.

“It’s a lot of fun,” said Baze, adding that there’s no pressure in working last year’s champion 2-year-old male. “He’s very easy to work. He does everything you want.”

Baze expects to have lots of fun Friday with Look Quickly, who won all four of her starts as a 2-year-old, including a pair of stakes, before going to the sidelines with a shin problem. She has had 15 works preparing for her return, including five bullet drills, and Baze said, “She’s coming up to the race really good.”

“This is a nice horse,” said Look Quickly’s trainer, Bill Morey Jr., who trained the millionaires Dixie Dot Com and Bold Chieftain. “When we work her, we try to gear her down, but she’s just fast. Her mother [Fame’s Flame] was the same. I feel very fortunate to have a filly this fast.”

Although his trips to the track are limited as he continues his battle with cancer, Morey and his assistant, Manny Padilla, talk daily by phone, and the Morey barn has had a good year, with 20 wins from 83 starts as well as 10 seconds and 12 thirds.

“I’ve got a good assistant and a good crew,” Morey said. “We’re running good numbers, and the owners are staying with me. I watch the races on TV every day. What I miss most is watching the gallopers, but Manny keeps me up on them.”

It’s not just Look Quickly who has Morey excited. Her half-brother, the 2-year-old Kid Green, had a solid 1:13.60 six-furlong drill Sunday and is about ready for his debut.

Morey considered the $75,000 Beverly J. Lewis at 6 1/2 furlongs on Sept. 6 at Los Alamitos for Look Quickly’s comeback but decided to stay home with her.

“We were considering that 3-year-old stakes at Los Alamitos, but we decided to take a shot here, being it’s on our home grounds.”

Friday’s race is a stakes-quality event with the Hollendorfer-trained duo of Hidethegoodstuff and Happybirthdaybaby each seeking a third straight win. The stakes-placed Koby Jo is also entered along with Esperanza Latina and Rathmoon.

Baze has ridden both Hollendorfer runners but opted for Look Quickly.

“I think his agent likes my filly,” Morey said.

A Beast in the Rolling Green

The meet’s lone stakes race, the $50,000-added Rolling Green at 1 1/16 miles on turf, will be run on Labor Day.

Summer Hit, who loves the Lakeside Turf Course and looms the one to beat, and Pepper Crown, who did beat him in the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile in April, seem likely to enter, but trainer Bill McLean feels he has a shot with Beast of Bourbon, a $40,000 claim on May 25. The horse has won both of his starts here since then.

“He’s doing well right now,” said McLean, who said client Chris Carpenter pushed to claim the 4-year-old gelding. “He has good tactical speed, and he’s a young horse who has run good races on Tapeta and the turf.”

Theresa Patterson services

Services for Theresa Patterson, 78, the widow of trainer Dennis Patterson, will be held Tuesday, Sept. 2, at St. Timothy Catholic Church in San Mateo at 11 a.m. Pacific.

“Although she wasn’t working at the barn, she was a big part of dad’s life. She loved the horses and the people,” said her son, Dennis. She also is survived by her son, Bill, who took over the barn after his father’s death.

She was a breeder and owner.

Marathon McDonald

Trainer Melanie McDonald was “thrilled beyond belief” to saddle her second straight Humboldt County Marathon winner Sunday at Ferndale as Mahogany Run ($14.80) led every step of the 1 5/8-mile race.

McDonald saddled the 2013 winner, A Thousand Aces, and shipped Mahogany Run to Ferndale two weeks early to prepare him for the race, which he won by 2 3/4 lengths over Falling Knife, the 2012 winner who headed Big Swig for second in the final stride.

“I was taught you have to have a horse plenty fit for this race,” McDonald said of the race, in which horses pass the finish line four times. “If it means a lot of galloping, that’s the ticket, and it certainly paid off again.”

Hugo Herrera gave Mahogany Run a masterful ride and had earlier won the mule stakes with Bar JF Red Ticket and the Arabian stakes with Ayers. He had four wins Sunday.

◗ Joe Crispin won the jockey title with 78 points (based on a 5-3-1 points system for first-, second-, and third-place finishes). Jake Samuels was second with 49. Quinn Howey won his second straight training title with eight wins and 57 points. Helen Shelley, whose runners finished first, second, third, and fourth in the Ferndale Arabian Stakes, was second with 35 points.