Camilla Urso lures Living the Life

Saturday’s $50,000-added Camilla Urso sprint for older fillies and mares will have a Breeders’ Cup headliner.

Trainer Gary Mandella will use the six-furlong race for Living the Life’s 2015 debut. Living the Life, a 5-year-old Irish-bred mare, ran 10th in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint after winning her first two starts in the United States. She won her debut last Aug. 7 in a Del Mar allowance race and then captured the Grade 2 Presque Isle Downs Masters Stakes over a synthetic Tapeta track similar to Golden Gate’s.

Living the Life has been working steadily since three weeks after her Breeders’ Cup appearance, so condition doesn’t seem to be an issue. That being said, she’ll need to have her running shoes on for her comeback.

Expected to run are multiple stakes winners Marks Mine (the defending Camilla Urso winner), Look Quickly, and Tribal Gal. So is the stakes winner Hollywood Miss, who is coming off a win here, and Tabled With Gold, who also is coming off a win, having beaten Marks Mine and Look Quickly as well as Camilla Urso rival Fast and Fancy in a Feb. 15 allowance here.

Look Quickly finished fourth in that allowance event, the first off-the-board finish of her career.

“She’ll have to run better,” trainer Bill Morey Jr. said. “They’re not perfect, they’re just horses. She’s made us very, very, very happy so far.”

Trainer Steve Specht says this is final year of racing for the 5-year-old Marks Mine, whose record at Golden Gate is 5-3-1 in 11 starts. Marks Mine has earned just over $400,000, and Specht is hoping to get her to $500,000 before she is retired.

“She’s got little issues, but they’re just minor things,” Specht said. “Father Time tends to slow us down, and she’s lost a step or two, but she always gives a good effort.”

Camilla Urso Light

Friday’s Golden Gate feature, a $62,500 optional-claiming race, could be called the Camilla Urso Light, with six of the seven entrants having been nominated to the Saturday stakes race. Power of Ten, who has earned $238,549, is the lone runner who wasn’t nominated to the stakes race.

Billy Morey will send out likely favorite Tim’s Go Girl and Two Pump. A 4-year-old Borrego filly, Tim’s Go Girl won five straight before finishing second to Hollywood Miss in her last start, which came at this level.

“I nominated her as Plan B, but this race filled,” Morey said. “It’s nice to see both brackets filling.”

Morey has twice claimed Tim’s Go Girl, both times for owners Michael Nentwig, Roger Newman, and Ray Pagano. The first time was last summer at Pleasanton when she ran second for a $16,000 claiming tag. Then they claimed her again in October at Santa Anita.

“The whole reason we picked her out was because we wanted to take her to Del Mar where there was a $16,000 nonwinners-of-two level,” Morey said. “She won at Del Mar but was claimed. We kept our eyes on her and when she was entered again for $16,000 we claimed her again.”

Morey thought Tim’s Go Girl could have been a contender in the Camilla Urso.

“She’s running good right now, and she likes this track,” he said. “We just liked the opportunity of running here one more time. We’ll probably see some of those others down the road.”