City by the Bay puts unbeaten mark on line at Pleasanton

The unbeaten City by the Bay returns to the Northern California fair circuit Sunday as the likely favorite in the $50,000-added Betamerica.com Oaks at the Oak Tree at Pleasanton meet.

City by the Bay won her debut last year at Santa Rosa, beating French Tart, whom she faces again Sunday. City by the Bay drew post 2 in a field of eight for Sunday’s six-furlong stakes race for 3-year-old fillies, with French Tart on the rail.

A $40,000 Barretts purchase in March 2013, City by the Bay won the $100,000 Barretts Debutante last September in her second start and returned to racing 8 1/2 months later, when she ran down three-time stakes winner Chu and You in the Seattle Handicap on June 1 at Emerald Downs.

Trainer Billy Morey said City by the Bay came out of the Barretts Debutante sore, necessitating time off.

A City Zip filly owned by Martin Bach and Jack Owens, City by the Bay came back without missing a beat. She worked steadily heading into her comeback race in Washington and defeated Chu and You by three-quarters of a length.

The victory may have been the most impressive of her career, Morey said, which is saying something considering that she won the Barretts Debutante by 8 3/4 lengths.

“I think she proved her competitiveness in Seattle,” Morey said. “That was a hard-fought win. The filly she ran down won three stakes there last year.”

City by the Bay flashed speed in her two starts as a 2-year-old. She sat back a bit off Chu and You in her 3-year-old debut.

“I was glad to see her sit off the pace,” Morey said.

Morey also is sending out Time and Tides, winless in two stakes starts but 2 for 2 at Sunday’s six-furlong distance.

“It looks like a good fit for her,” he said.

City by the Bay is not the only multiple stakes winner in the field.

Sprouts, who tries blinkers for the first time, won a pair of $100,000 races as a 2-year-old and has run in six straight stakes. She makes her first start since running fourth in the $200,000 Evening Jewel at Santa Anita on April 5. She has five works since, including a five-furlong, 58-second bullet drill June 10.

D’ya Knowwhatimean has three straight seconds, two in stakes races. She missed by a neck in the Angels Flight at Santa Anita last time.

Amaranth, Lady Fifty Two, and Vanuatu round out the field.