Bill Gray, the Northern California owner and breeder, was on an airplane on the afternoon of Dec. 15 at the time his colt Drop Um was running the Bay Meadows Juvenile in Pleasanton. “They were coming around the turn and the wifi went out on the plane,” Gray recalled on Friday. “I had to sit there for two hours to find out what went on.” Gray, a veterinarian, missed seeing live Drop Um finish first by a head in the race at 1 1/16 miles only to be disqualified and placed second for causing interference in the stretch. The loss was the first time Drop Um did not collect a first-place prize in three starts. “They ain’t beat him yet,” Gray said. “They DQ’d him, but they didn’t beat him.” :: Santa Anita Clocker Reports are available every race day. Access now. Drop Um, trained by Felix Rondan, has his Southern California debut in Saturday’s $175,000 California Cup Derby for statebreds at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita. Trained by Felix Rondan, Drop Um is part of a field of eight that includes Shea Brennan, I’m a Bad Boy, and R Heisman, the first three finishers of the King Glorious Stakes at a mile at Los Alamitos on Dec. 15. “It’s different competition,” Bill Gray said. Drop Um won his first two starts, a maiden race at 4 1/2 furlongs at Golden Gate Fields last May and the Everett Nevin Stakes at six furlongs at Pleasanton last July, the first stakes of the year for juveniles in Northern California. Drop Um did not race for the rest of the summer and most of the fall. “After he won the first stakes, he was just off a little bit,” Gray said. “Even though I’m a veterinarian, we’re not big on treating them. I had a PET scan done and they couldn’t find anything. He’d won his first two and he’d shown a lot of talent. We gave him two or three months off and let him grow up a little bit.” In the sprint wins, Drop Um contested the early pace. In the Bay Meadows Juvenile, Drop Um closed from third of seven to reach contention on the turn in his first start in more than five months. “I think Felix did a fantastic training job,” Gray said. “The horse is getting better every day. We hope for the best.” Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith has the mount for the first time on Drop Um on Saturday. Gray, who shares ownership with his wife, Jill, have had good luck with Smith. In 2020, Smith rode Indian Peak to a win for the Grays in the Snow Chief Stakes for statebred 3-year-olds at Santa Anita. Bill Gray, who is in his 70s, said he is “95 percent retired.” The couple own Grays Farm in Cottonwood, Calif., in Shasta county. Drop Um is by Far From Over, also the sire of R Heisman, who stood at the Grays’s farm until he was lost to complications of a pelvis injury a few years ago, Bill Gray said. Drop Um and R Heisman are part of Far From Over’s final crop. Grays Farms stands the stallion Jack Milton, who was relocated from Kentucky before the 2023 breeding season. “We’ve got about 15 broodmares now,” Bill Gray said. “We have a few more than we’ve had in the past.” With the cessation of racing at Pleasanton last month, there is no live racing scheduled in Northern California this year, although there is hope the five-stop fair circuit will be conducted from mid-June to mid-October. Golden Gate Fields closed permanently last June. Bill Gray described the unsettled Northern California racing situation as a “disaster.” “Everyone is going to have to get used to it,” he said. He described Grays Farm as a “mom and pop operation” that focuses on breeding and racing a majority of their own horses. “We breed a few mares for other people, but that’s not our deal,” he said. “We raise them and race them. We sell them for a fair price if we can get it.” Drop Um was not offered at auction. On Saturday, he starts in the richest race of his career at Santa Anita. CHRB postpones meeting The California Horse Racing Board will conduct its first meeting of the year in Sacramento on Feb. 20, the regulatory agency recently announced. A January meeting scheduled for Thursday in Sacramento was canceled because of the wildfires that struck the Los Angeles area earlier this month, the board announced in a statement earlier this week. The meeting had one of the smallest agendas in recent memory, with only five subjects slated for discussion, including monthly reports from two leading officials. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.