In Our A poised to fire best shot in Oakland Stakes

Saturday’s $50,000-added Oakland Stakes at Golden Gate Fields looked like it might be a replay of the El Dorado Shooter three weeks ago, when Top Harbor edged In Our A by the narrowest of noses. But trainer Tim McCanna sent the 3-year-old Top Harbor back to the farm after a hard campaign.

Even without Top Harbor in the field, In Our A will need his best to win. Among his six opponents in the six-furlong Tapeta race for 3-year-olds and up are the speedy Papa’s Golden Boy, the McCanna-trained Rager, and Southern California raiders Ultimate Bango and Border Town.

Trainer Ellen Jackson is expecting In Our A to run at least as well in the Oakland as he did in the El Dorado Shooter.

“You’ve always got to bring your ‘A’ game when you run in a stakes,” she said. “I think he’ll be fitter today because he was off almost two months last time.”

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The El Dorado Shooter was the first stakes try for In Our A, a 5-year-old Idiot Proof gelding who has 5 wins and 5 seconds in 10 career starts. In his first start without Lasix, In Our A chased pacesetter War Games in the six-furlong El Dorado Shooter, took the lead in the stretch, but was nipped by Top Harbor.

Papa’s Golden Boy is a two-time stakes winner who has made 16 of his 17 starts at Emerald Downs. A 5-year-old Harbor the Gold gelding trained by Jack Steiner, Papa’s Golden Boy set the pace and wound up fourth in the Grade 3 Longacres Mile at Emerald in August.

Papa’s Golden Boy has never raced on a synthetic surface, but he’s handled it well during training, Steiner said.

“We’ve had him here since Sept. 18, and he seems to like the surface,” Steiner said. “He’s been training good.”

With no races filling for Papa’s Golden Boy at Golden Gate, Steiner sent Papa’s Golden Boy to Del Mar two weeks ago, and he ran fourth of four, beaten five lengths, in a turf allowance sprint.

“It was a nice prep race for him,” Steiner said. “We threw a lot at him, and he got squeezed from both sides at the start.”

McCanna claimed Rager for $40,000 on Aug. 25 at Del Mar. In his only start for McCanna, Rager lost a Tapeta sprint for $40,000 claimers by a nose on Oct. 30.

“One jump more and he would have won,” McCanna said. “He really likes turf, but he handled the Tapeta well.”

Ultimate Bango and Border Town both have placed in stakes. The local runners Italiano and I’mgonnabesomebody round out the field.