City by the Bay 'ready to run' in Seattle Handicap

AUBURN, Wash. – It’s almost as if City by the Bay took a wrong turn on a California freeway and ended up hundreds of miles from home in unfamiliar surroundings. An undefeated stakes winner in her home state but with no connections to the Pacific Northwest, City by the Bay will make her 2014 debut Sunday at Emerald Downs, as a prohibitive favorite in the $50,000 Seattle Handicap for 3-year-old fillies.

City by the Bay’s side trip to the Puget Sound is simply a matter of timing, trainer Bill Morey said this week from San Francisco. City by the Bay has been idle since September – after blazing to an 8 3/4-length victory in the $100,000 Barretts Debutante Stakes at Fairplex – and is ready to get back to work. Morey said that with no upcoming race of interest in his own backyard, the decision to ship City by the Bay to Emerald Downs for the 6 1/2-furlong Seattle was an easy one.

“The timing is good,” Morey said. “She’s ready to run. We don’t have a long-term plan with her. We really don’t. We’re honestly taking it one race at a time with her. But the timing fits her really well. That’s why we’re there.”

City by the Bay has turned a quick profit for owners Martin Bach and Jack Owens, who paid $40,000 for the filly, a daughter of City Zip, at the 2013 Barretts May sale of 2-year-olds in training. City by the Bay won her debut two months later in a maiden race at Santa Rosa, then overwhelmed nine foes in the Barretts Debutante to close out 2013.

“Obviously, she is the real deal,” Morey said immediately after the Barretts victory. Morey was less effusive with his praise this week, saying only that City by the Bay is talented but that “we really don’t know how good she is yet.”

Juan Hernandez, her regular rider, will come in from Golden Gate to handle City by the Bay, who drew post 6 in an eight-horse field. If she passes her test at Emerald Downs, City by the Bay could make her next start June 22 in the $50,000 Pleasanton Oaks on the Northern California fair circuit.

Blaine Wright, who trains Seattle Handicap contender Lotta Attitude, has seen enough of City by the Bay to know the others, including his filly, could be running for second place.

“We know the two times she’s ran, no one has even threatened her,” Wright said of City by the Bay. “How good is she? No one knows. She walloped ’em in the Barretts Debutante, and they sell some good horses in California. She took it right to them. And Juan Hernandez, if he’s willing to travel and leave his business in Northern California, then you have to think she’s a very high-quality filly. Billy has some bottom to her, with two three-quarter works over that track at Golden Gate, so she’s fit. She’s no easy customer. She’s the horse to beat, not Lotta Attitude.”