Potri Cacho should like distance

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Sunday's $12,500-added C.J. Hindley Humboldt County Marathon at the Humboldt County Fair will have a Bay Meadows feel to it.

The 1 5/8-mile race attracted six runners, four of whom are based at Bay Meadows or Golden Gate Fields: Champagne Day, Dandi Candi, Potri Cacho, and River Getaway.

Trainers Bill Morey and Jeff Bonde are sending horses to the race this year, with Morey's Potri Cacho the possible favorite in a race in which horses pass the finish line four times.

"Sometimes you do things for fun," Morey said. "I remember going up there with my dad when Lyrical Table won in 1988. I always wanted to take a shot at the race."

Potri Cacho was claimed for $32,000 at Gulfstream in April and sent to Morey, who has seen him finish second once and third twice in allowance races. Potri Cacho qualifies for the marathon - which despite its stakes designation, is, in fact, a $12,500 starter handicap race - because he ran for a $10,000 tag at Gulfstream earlier this year.

"The horse is eligible, and even if he wins, he won't lose his first allowance condition here," Morey said. "He's been running a flat mile and a mile and 70 at Pleasanton. He comes from way off the pace and makes one big run. It seems like he's just getting going at a mile, so the distance should be good for him."

Bonde claimed Champagne Day for Ray DeMarta, Cindy Olsen, and Jack Retzloff for $10,000 at Bay Meadows on May 21 with an eye to the Marathon. Olsen and Retzloff used a similar strategy last year, claiming Smokeville, who then won the Marathon.

"He looked like a horse who would like the distance," said Bonde. "That's the type you want to have for this race."

o At the Bay Meadows Fair, 11 older runners will meet in the Sunday feature, a one-mile allowance race over the turf.

Shadow Raider had two wins and a second over the course this spring, and his three turf victories are more than the combined total of the rest of the field. A winner of all three of his turf races at the distance, Shadow Raider could be extremely tough despite the step up in class.