Irish Heatwave wins Silky Sullivan; Kitty Boom Boom takes Campanile

ALBANY, Calif. – A tight three-way photo and a dominating performance brought an end to the eight-stakes Gold Rush Weekend at Golden Gate Fields on Sunday.

Irish Heatwave ($7.80) dueled head-and-head with Listing to deep stretch and then held off the late runs of Our Silver Oak and Lieutenant Dan in winning the $101,500 Silky Sullivan for Cal-bred 3-year-olds at one mile on the turf.

Kitty Boom Boom ($10.40) sat just off the pace of 124-1 Tip Top Gal, put her away when she wanted and cruised home to a four-length victory in the $101,550 Campanile Stakes for 3-year-old Cal-bred fillies at one mile on the turf.

Listing flashed good speed after breaking from the outside post in the Silky Sullivan. Irish Heatwave, who broke from the No. 3 post, stayed right with his rival while saving ground throughout. The winner never got a breather as he stuck his nose in front of Listing at the quarter pole, and the two continued to race in tandem into the stretch.

When Listing, who finished fourth, only one-half length behind the winner, hung a bit in the stretch, Lieutenant Dan and Our Silver Oak were right there to challenge. Our Silver Oak appeared to have his nose in front just before the wire, but Irish Heatwave had his nose first on the wire, winning the race in 1:36.60.

"I couldn't call it," said winning jockey Irving Orozco. "Lucky I had a game horse.

"I figured if I stayed close to [Listing], he'd continue to compete. He was getting a little tired at the end. My horse gave me just enough. He ran a great race. Getting a ground-saving trip is always good when you're on the turf."

Juan Hernandez was confident he'd outfinished Lieutenant Dan but said he couldn't see Orozco and Irish Heatwave.

Irish Heatwave earned $60,000 for his first stakes win and third victory in eight starts. He has earnings of $160,292 for Calumet Farm. Keith Desormeaux is the trainer.

Campanile winner Kitty Boom Boom also stalked as the race had faster fractions than the Silky Sullivan.

"When I saw who she was tracking, I just thought, [Tip Top Gal is] not going to pull this off,' " said Kitty Boom Boom's owner and breeder, Pamela C. Ziebarth.

There was drama before the race as 3-2 favorite Lakerball acted up walking onto the track and for most of the post parade, forcing jockey Alonso Quinonez off her twice.

Kitty Boom Boom, who ran second to older in her previous start on April 13, left no drama in the Campanile with her strong stretch run. Hollywood Hills rallied for second, beating Apache Princess by a half-length, with Dr Wysong a nose farther back in fourth. The winning time was 1:36.81.

Kitty Boom Boom, trained by Richard Baltas, earned $60,000 for her second victory in four starts and now has earned $111,000.