Coach Bob returns home to Pleasanton in pursuit of first stakes win

A hometown hero will try to win Friday’s Oak Tree Sprint at the Oak Tree at Pleasanton meeting.

“He’s back in town,” trainer Reina Gonzalez said of Coach Bob.

Coach Bob, a 5-year-old Bertrando horse out of the unraced Gentleman’s Hope, was a $5,000 yearling purchase at the 2010 Northern California sale at the Alameda County Fairgrounds.

“We’ve had him in Pleasanton since he was a yearling,” Gonzalez said of the solid sprinter, whose career-high Beyer Speed Figure was a 102 at Golden Gate Fields in 2013.

Coach Bob has earned $211,002, with four wins, five seconds, and five thirds in 32 starts. He has two seconds and a third in 11 stakes tries, including a second in last year’s Casual Lies Handicap, which also was run on the Fourth of July, and a third in the Livermore Valley Wines as a 3-year-old.

Coach Bob is actually looking for his first win at Pleasanton but has a second and two thirds in three starts.

Coach Bob is Gonzalez’s pride and joy. In addition to training him, she shares ownership of him with Tom Gerstel and Keith and Jean Hembree.

“Every time, he lays his body down. He’s a ball of fiery speed,” Gonzalez said.

That he’s run 32 times is a testament to Gonzalez’s care because he has had a number of foot issues.

“I can’t take all the credit,” Gonzalez said. “He’s easy. I get on him every day.”

Coach Bob is quick. In fact, when Gonzalez’s partners pushed her to run him in the California Cup Sprint at Santa Anita on Jan. 25, she saw him run second to Big Macher after setting the pace under Kent Desormeaux.

“It was one of the most exciting days of my life,” Gonzalez said. “Kent Desormeaux gave him respect before the race, and when he got off, he said he was ‘rocket quick’ and the fastest Thoroughbred he’d been on. I told him, ‘You know how to make a girl feel good.’ ”

Despite Coach Bob’s quickness, Gonzalez said, “He’s totally relaxed when he goes to the track. You could put a 10-year-old kid on him.”

Last year, Coach Bob won the pace battle from Distinctiv Passion but lost the war in the Casual Lies to Ourwestcoastghost, who will try to defend his title.

If he does, he’ll have Coach Bob to catch.