Golden Gate Fields: Positive Response, Hudson Landing won't go in Berkeley Handicap

Golden Gate Fields held a prep race for the Nov. 29 Berkeley Handicap last Friday. Old rivals Positive Response and Hudson Landing signed up, even though the race was on turf and the Berkeley will be run on the main track.

Alas, the rivalry didn’t get its renewal.

Positive Response, the 6-5 morning-line favorite, was scratched. Hudson Landing, who went off as the 6-5 favorite in a field of four, ran last every step of the way. Neither of the veteran stakes winners will compete in the Berkeley.

Positive Response has an infection in a hind leg, and trainer Billy Morey said he won’t be able to run.

“It’s seemingly not a big deal, but he won’t be ready for that race, so we’ll just give him time and bring him back next year,” Morey said.

Positive Response won the County of Alameda Handicap at Pleasanton and the Rolling Green Stakes on turf at Golden Gate Fields this year. He also was disqualified from first place and demoted to fourth in the Bull Dog Handicap at Fresno after bumping Hudson Landing in the lane.

Hudson Landing’s poor effort in that race might have been his final start, according to trainer Blaine Wright.

“He’s okay, but I guess he’s getting a little tired of racing,” Wright said. “We’ll probably retire him. I’d like to throw the race out, but he hasn’t won in a long time. His confidence is a little shot. I don’t want to see him run like that another time. It would be nice to say we’ll drop him into the claiming ranks, but maybe he’s just tired.”

Wright would not say definitively that Hudson Landing will be retired but noted that the horse will be 7 next year. The Maria’s Mon gelding, who counts the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile and the Grade 3 All American among his four stakes wins and has earned $524,198, will go to owner Jared Chappell’s farm in Idaho.

Hudson Landing was the first big horse for both Wright and Chappell, who compared his victory in the 2012 San Francisco Mile to winning the Kentucky Derby. Wright said Chappell would make Hudson Landing a riding horse if he doesn’t return to the races.

Wright also was disappointed with Andallthatitmeans’s last-place finish in last Saturday’s Golden Nugget Stakes for 2-year-olds. The Cause to Believe gelding had won two stakes at Hastings this summer.

“I certainly hope it’s a throw-out,” Wright said. “It was his first time over the course. He was running in restricted races for British Columbia horses at Hastings.”

Friday’s race did turn out to be a prep for the Berkeley for Schilling, who dominated the race on the lead for Morey. The 5-year-old Artie Schiller gelding was purchased privately this summer after running most of his races at Presque Isle Downs, which has a Tapeta synthetic main track like Golden Gate Fields.

“We bought him with the intention of trying him on the turf,” Morey said.

Friday’s one-mile race marked Schilling’s turf debut after a pair of sprints Aug. 23 and Oct. 19. He was entered in one turf race but didn’t make it in from the also-eligible list.

Morey said the size of the field and the ease of Schilling’s victory make it hard to determine how good the race was, but he said the fractions and the way Schilling finished, winning in 1:36.92, have convinced him to nominate Schilling to the Berkeley.

Big weekend for Hollendorfer

Leading trainer Jerry Hollendorfer frequently has multiple entries in Northern California stakes, but last Saturday, he entered only Exit Stage Left, an unraced maiden, in the $53,350 Golden Nugget Stakes.

The Noonmark colt had an adventurous trip in the six-furlong stakes but finished strongly to win a three-way photo by a neck. The colt propped when taken back from tight quarters going into the turn but rallied in the lane.

“We’re going to see good things from him,” jockey Russell Baze said.

“I was looking at this horse as a very good prospect,” Hollendorfer said of the $100,000 purchase he owns with Mark DeDomenico. “I wouldn’t have run him in this race if I didn’t think he was going to do good.”

Exit Stage Left was the even-money favorite, even though his first-year sire was 0 for 10 with debut runners and had only one win from 24 starters. He is a half-brother of Silent Approval, who won seven times and earned $223,000.

“I think he showed he has some talent,” Hollendorfer said.

Hollendorfer also saw Broken Sword, who won her debut in last year’s Juan Gonzalez Memorial at Pleasanton, win for the first time since then in a turf allowance Sunday.

He also had success at Betfair Hollywood Park, where Shared Belief, a seven-length winner in his Golden Gate Fields debut, won the Grade 3 Hollywood Prevue by 7 3/4 lengths while earning a 99 Beyer Speed Figure.

◗ Ten runners, each with a chance to win, will compete in Saturday’s Oakland Stakes at six furlongs. Eight of the runners have earned black type, including four stakes winners. Hollendorfer will send out three runners: Longview Drive, Moonshine Bay, and Ain’t No Other.