Kiss N Scat stays perfect on Golden Gate main track by taking California Oaks

Kiss N Scat, content to sit just off 70-1 shot Brookys Star, took over in the lane and proved best as she won the 1 1/16-mile, $50,870 California Oaks at Golden Gate Fields on Saturday.

Kiss N Scat, a daughter of millionaire multiple Grade 1 stakes-winning Scat Daddy, was making her first start in nearly 10 weeks after a front-running 13-length allowance victory. The win increased the 3-year-old filly’s record on the Golden Gate main track to 3 for 3. She also ran second to stablemate Stays in Vegas in the Pike Place Dancer on turf.

Contenders Kiss N Scat, My Dynamo, and favored Code Warrior were content to let Brookys Star set a realistic pace of 23.98 seconds, 48.03, and 1:12.65.

Kiss N Scat ($7.60) was able to save ground from her outside post and she moved to the two path in chasing the front-runner. My Dynamo sat third with Code Warrior in fourth along the rail.

Kiss N Scat moved up on the front-runner on her own on the second turn and pushed to the lead after passing the quarter pole. She opened into the lane as My Dynamo and Code Warrior also began their rallies.

Kiss N Scat was running steadily under Ricardo Gonzalez inching away from her rivals late to win by 1 3/4 lengths in 1:44.14 over My Dynamo, who had run third behind Code Warrior in the Golden Gate Debutante.

“It was a nice performance,” said Gonzalez. “She sat right off the post, and, when I was ready to go, she made a really good move. It seems like the other horses were coming, but the she took off again.”

Right There, winner of the Landaluce at Santa Anita last summer and third in the Grade 1 Chandelier three races back, got up to win a three-way photo for third over Code Warrior and Dreamarcher another length behind My Dynamo.

Code Warrior, who was 3 for 3 with two stakes wins at Golden Gate entering the race, found herself pinned to the rail the entire way.

“It was a tough task, asking a horse to go a mile and a sixteenth from the rail, two things she hadn’t done,” said Code Warrior’s jockey, Anne Sanguinetti, who was unable to get the filly outside, where she prefers to run.

Kiss N Scat’s owner-trainer Jerry Hollendorfer saddled Eclipse Award-winning Songbird for a victory in her 3-year-old debut earlier in the day in the Grade 2 Las Virgenes at Santa Anita.

Steve Melen, Steve Taub, and George Todaro are co-owners of Kiss N Scat, who earned $30,450 and increased her career earnings to $77,500.