Code Warrior, G. G. Ryder go for sweeps

Thanksgiving weekend is the biggest weekend of the Golden Gate Fields fall meet. On Saturday, Code Warrior will try to complete a sweep of the meeting’s 2-year-old sprint stakes in the $50,000-added Golden Gate Debutante. On Sunday, G. G. Ryder will try to complete a sweep of Golden Gate’s three graded stakes for older runners in the Grade 3, $100,000 Berkeley Handicap.

Code Warrior may not be the best 2-year-old filly to run in Northern California this year. That designation goes to Stays in Vegas, who won the Juan Gonzalez Memorial at Pleasanton, the Wine Country Debutante at Santa Rosa, and the Pike Place Dancer on turf at Golden Gate Fields. But Code Warrior seems capable of giving Stays in Vegas a run for her money – at least sprinting.

She won her debut at Golden Gate Fields on Aug. 28 by seven lengths going 5 1/2 furlongs. She then beat colts in the six-furlong Golden Nugget by 2 1/2 lengths on Nov. 7.

Code Warrior likely will be odds-on as she goes for three wins in a row Saturday. Thirteen fillies were nominated to the six-furlong Debutante, but three – Kiss N Scat, Runninforhoody, and Cajun Cookin – are entered in a one-mile race Thursday. Another nominee, Khalaya, was second as the odds-on choice in a starter-allowance race last Friday.

Trainer Manny Badilla bought Code Warrior for the J.C. Racing Stable for $18,000 at a sale in Texas. Code Warrior is by Society’s Chairman and out of the unraced Lady Natalie. Society’s Chairman, a first-crop sire based in Ontario, has also sired multiple stakes winner Caren.

Jockey Anne Sanguinetti has ridden Code Warrior in her two wins and was at the sale with Badilla.

“I think he thought it would be interesting to get a rider’s perspective,” she said. “When we saw her in person, we knew we wanted her.”

Sanguinetti, 34, has ridden a number of good horses, including E Z Kitty, the Washington Horse of the Year in 2013. She believes Code Warrior also can be a special horse.

“She does everything so easy,” she said. “It’s weird. I have a good clock in my head when I’m working horses, but it feels like she’s going slower than she really is. I feel like we’re going 52 when she’s going 47. I’ve never felt like she’s putting an effort into anything. She does everything easily and never gets tired.”

Code Warrior will try to accomplish something Cathy’s Crunches did in 2010 – win both of Golden Gate’s 2-year-old sprints, the Debutante and Golden Nugget. Badilla, a longtime assistant to the late Bill Morey Jr., said he ran Code Warrior in the Golden Nugget because no allowance race for fillies would fill, and she needed a prep for the Debutante.

“We had a filly called Look Quickly who beat colts in an allowance race before winning the Debutante, and my exercise rider told me she’s better than Look Quickly,” Badilla said. “She’s never lost to anyone when working, so we went in the race.”

If things go well, Code Warrior likely will run in the California Oaks here in January. Badilla said he’s not sure what would come after that race, although he is thinking about trying her on turf.

Going for the sweep

G. G. Ryder is nothing if not consistent, especially at Golden Gate Fields, where on Sunday he will try to win the Berkeley Handicap and become the first horse to sweep the Grade 3 trio of the San Francisco Mile, All American, and Berkeley. Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said G. G. Ryder is a “happy” colt, and that the 4-year-old son of Chhaya Dance seems to do whatever is asked of him.

Hollendorfer also plans to run Outside Nashville in the Berkeley. Outside Nashville finished second to G. G. Ryder in the All American and the Bull Dog at Fresno.

Hollendorfer is one win away from 7,000 after Lucy in Diamonds won Sunday’s seventh race at Golden Gate. Only two other trainers – Dale Baird and Steve Asmussen – have won 7,000 races.

“It would be nice,” Hollendorfer said of the milestone. “We’re very grateful to be involved with that many winners, but nobody does it on their own.”