Claim of You Lift Me Up continues to pay off

ALBANY, Calif. - Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said he and his top client, George Todaro, were "just looking for a nice horse" when they claimed You Lift Me Up for $32,000 on June 6.

Since the claim, the 3-year-old Lord Carson filly has won two stakes races and an allowance race. She also lost an allowance race by a nose in her first start for her new connections and battled Wild Promises before tiring in the Miss America here earlier at the meet.

Her first stakes victory came in The Last Dance, the final race run at Bay Meadows. Hollendorfer said the victory, given its historic implications, meant a great deal to him.

You Lift Me Up comes off a wire-to-wire stakes victory in the Audrey Skirball-Kenis Stakes at Hollywood Park on Nov. 15, following a seven-week layoff. She will seek her third stakes victory for Hollendorfer and Todaro in Saturday's $75,000 Pacific Heights at Golden Gate Fields.

The 1 1/16-mile race marks her first start on the main track for Hollendorfer."I think she runs well on both surfaces," said Hollendorfer, who has kept the filly with his Southern California string for the past six weeks.

Her works over the track here and on the synthetic surface at Santa Anita suggest the main track should offer no problems.

You Lift Me Up's versatile running style, with the ability to lead, stalk, or even sit back a bit, will give jockey Russell Baze plenty of options. She will be meeting older runners for the third time since joining the Hollendorfer barn. Her two defeats in her new barn have come against older; her three wins were against her own age group.

That, just like the surface switch, isn't a concern for Hollendorfer.

"She's won down south," he said, indicating the $32,000 claiming price may have been a bit of a bargain.

Saturday's field of eight has some quality to it.

Spenditallbaby, coming off a second in the Nov. 2 It's in the Air at Hollywood Park, won the $150,000 B. Thoughtful at Hollywood Park this spring. Tutta Bella, making her third start off a six-week freshener, won the $150,000 Fran's Valentine at Hollywood this spring as well.

Shes a Lucky Wager was stakes-placed last year as a 2-year-old and again this year. Her stablemate, Lady Railrider, with whom she dead-heated on Nov. 9 here, also is stakes-placed this year.

Film Editor is winless but stakes-placed this year. Bartok's Bling has won two races at the meet, while Star Voyager comes north seeking her first victory of the year.