Georgie Boy top star for Gold Rush

Georgie Boy's perfect year has a chance to continue in the $150,000 Tiznow Stakes on California Gold Rush Day at Hollywood Park next Saturday.

A winner of two stakes at Santa Anita earlier this year - the Sunshine Millions Dash and the Grade 2 San Carlos - Georgie Boy is the best-known name among the probable starters for the 10-race Gold Rush program for statebreds.

Garrett Gomez, Georgie's Boy's regular rider, is scheduled to ride.

Trained by Kathy Walsh for breeder George Schwary, Georgie Boy, 4, has been the top sprinter in California this year. Georgie Boy has won six stakes in his career, including the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity in September 2007.

Walsh had considered sending Georgie Boy out of town this spring for the Commonwealth Stakes at Keeneland on April 11 and the Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park on May 25, and may still ship to New York.

"We'll run him and then we'll see," Walsh said.

The Tiznow Stakes is one of six races worth $150,000 or more on the Gold Rush program.

The richest race of the day is the $250,000 Snow Chief Stakes for 3-year-olds. Feisty Suances and Unbridled Roman, fifth and sixth in the Santa Anita Derby on April 4, and the two-time stakes winner Triumphant Flight are the leading contenders.

The top race for females is the $200,000 Melair Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. Beltene, the winner of the $250,000 Sunshine Millions Oaks over six furlongs in January, will attempt to rebound following two losses in March.

There are two $150,000 turf races - the Khaled Stakes over 1 1/8 miles and the Fran's Valentine Stakes for females over 1 1/16 miles.

The Fran's Valentine field will include Bel Air Sizzle, who won the Valentine Dancer Stakes and was second in the Grade 2 Santa Ana Handicap during the Santa Anita meeting.

Mr. Wolverine, who won the 2008 Khaled Stakes, may start, though trainer Jorge Gutierrez is considering a race at Golden Gate Fields the same day and the Tiznow Stakes. Mr. Wolverine was second in the Sensational Star Handicap at Santa Anita on March 29 in his first start of 2009.

Golden Doc A will make her 2009 debut in the $150,000 B. Thoughtful Stakes for fillies and mares over seven furlongs. She won the Grade 1 Las Virgenes Stakes in 2008, and has not started since finishing 10th in the Grade 2 Mrs. Revere Stakes at Churchill Downs last November.

"This is the first time she's run off a layoff," trainer Barry Abrams said. "I expect a good race."

Smaller catalog for Barretts sale

The Barretts May sale of 2-year-olds in training on May 11 will have 250 horses, considerably fewer than the 2008 sale of 329 horses.

The 2008 sale averaged $53,173, a decline of 15 percent from a record sale in 2007 that averaged $62,604. The 2008 sale had an average price that was 1 percent higher than the 2006 average of $52,573.

Last year, the sale topper was a Harlan's Holiday filly that sold for $700,000.

This year's sale will have training previews on May 7 and 8 at Fairplex Park, which like Barretts is on the Los Angeles County fairgrounds in Pomona. The sale includes consignments from locally and nationally prominent horsemen. The sale includes one colt and one filly by Unusual Heat, the leading sire in California in 2008.