Golden Lips starts anew for top barn

ALBANY, Calif. - An interesting mix of seven 3-year-old fillies run in a 1 1/16-mile maiden special weight race, race 1 Sunday at Golden Gate Fields.

They are a well-traveled bunch - three coming north from Southern California and one coming from Florida by way of New York. The remaining three are locally based.

Golden Lips, a private purchase after her third straight runner-up finish at Calder on Nov. 1, makes her California debut. Favored in all but her last start, when she went off at 8-5, Golden Lips began her career with a third-place finish in a turf sprint last year at Saratoga. She had one other start as a 2-year-old, sprinting on the turf at Belmont.

Following a seven-month layoff, Golden Lips began her 3-year-old season with a dull comeback at Gulfstream on April 22 before going to the sidelines for another four months.

At Calder she ran second in a turf sprint, then in a turf route, and finally in a main-track route in a race switched off the turf due to weather.

She'll make her first start for leading trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, who has leading rider Russell Baze aboard. Golden Lips has had two works here to get used to the Tapeta surface.

She was a part of slow paces in Florida, but will need to show more speed to be with the pace here.

Awesome Feat, a consistent earner for trainer Richard Mandella in Southern California, ventures north. She ran second at this distance on Oct. 4 at Oak Tree after sticking her head in front in the lane. But she was never in the hunt while racing wide in her last start on Oct. 28. She added front wraps two starts ago and adds blinkers today.

Gem Show broke slowly but finished with interest when fifth in her Oct. 17 Oak Tree debut at a mile on the turf. She adds blinkers for what will be her second start Sunday.

Laureldean Express, who hit the board in all three of her starts on synthetic surfaces as a 2-year-old in Great Britain, makes her first start since June 30.

Locally based Commendable Queen moves back to the main track off her best effort, a third-place finish on the Bay Meadows turf on Nov. 4. Rounding out the field are Jovani, fourth in her Oct. 26 debut at Bay Meadows, and Bell Sauvage, who beat Jovani that day but showed little when the beaten favorite sprinting here on Nov. 18.