Ideal trip pays off for Alert Bay in Rolling Green

Millionaire Alert Bay, second in the Grade 3 Longacres Mile last month after more than a year on the sidelines, couldn’t have gotten a better trip Monday as he scored an easy victory in the $60,350 Rolling Green at Golden Gate Fields.

The 7-year-old City Zip gelding broke perfectly. Mithqaal, who had won two straight over the turf course, was anxious to go on, and Juan Hernandez settled Alert Bay into second, letting him move off the rail to sit outside Mithqaal.

“It wasn’t a hard race to handicap,” said winning trainer Blaine Wright. “I said if [Mithqaal] wanted the lead to let him have it and just move outside because he’d still be able to save ground.”

Hernandez was content to sit in a stalking position, which is Alert Bay’s best trip, and made a decisive move after turning for home to take command.

Alert Bay won the 1 1/16-mile turf race in 1:42.35, defeating the game Mithqaal by 1 1/2 lengths. Ritzy A. P., the second choice in the race coming off a victory in the Joseph Grace at Santa Rosa, made a late rally along the rail to win a four-way photo for third, 1 1/4 lengths behind Mithqaal.

The victory was Alert Bay’s fifth in six starts over the Lakeside Turf Course, including two consecutive runnings of the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile in 2016 and 2017. He has nine victories in 19 grass starts while banking more than three-quarters of a million dollars on the surface. He returned $5.80 on Monday.

“He’s been telling us all week that he was ready, and he loves the three-week spacing between races,” said Wright. “I wasn’t worried about the timing of the race, but I was concerned that he was coming back after 13 months on the sidelines.”

Wright will now give the Cal-bred a brief freshener and said he would look for Cal-bred races down south for Alert Bay’s next start.

Owned by Peter Redekop, Alert Bay earned $39,450 to boost his career earnings to $1,331,605 with 15 victories in 35 starts.