San Francisco Mile highlights weekend of major turf racing

Golden Gate Fields will offer two big days of turf racing this weekend, with the Grade 3, $100,000 San Francisco Mile scheduled for Saturday at the Albany, Calif., track and a pair of $100,000 turf stakes for California-breds on Sunday.

“The nominations came together well,” said racing secretary Patrick Mackey, who is particularly excited by the potential field for the San Francisco Mile, which is expected to include four graded stakes winners, two of them on turf, as well as two graded stakes-placed runners.

The San Francisco Mile, Golden Gate’s premier stakes for older runners, will have a tough local contingent, including the 2014 winner, Pepper Crown, who scored a $94.20 upset in his stakes debut last year. Summer Hit, the runner-up in the past two editions of the race, also is expected to run.

Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, who will saddle Summer Hit, also will be represented by G. G. Ryder and Toruk Mato, who is making his turf debut.

Pepper Crown, bred, owned, and trained by Alex Paszkeicz, won two of Golden Gate’s three graded stakes last year, adding the Grade 3 Berkeley to the San Francisco Mile. He also won the Rolling Green on turf.

Pepper Crown and G. G. Ryder have a rivalry like that of Affirmed and Alydar. They’ve met five times, finishing one-two four times, with each winning twice. In their other meeting, G. G. Ryder won, with Pepper Crown third.

Pepper Crown beat his rival in the Berkeley last year and in their most recent meeting April 5.

“It’s a great rivalry with Pepper Crown, G. G. Ryder, and Summer Hit and the added intrigue with the Southern California horses,” said Mackey. “If they run, it’s going to be a fantastic race.”

Hall of Fame trainer Neil Drysdale’s Are You Kidding Me is a Grade 3 winner on turf and ran second in a Grade 2 turf stakes as a 2-year-old.

Trainer Graham Motion’s Edge of Reality is a stakes winner on turf and a Grade 3 winner on dirt.

Trainer Darrell Vienna is leaning toward the San Francisco Mile for the multiple graded stakes-placed Si Sage but is considering several Santa Anita races as well.

The San Francisco Mile will be part of a $100,000-guaranteed late pick four.

In addition to Sunday’s two $100,000 California-bred turf stakes for 3-year-olds, the Campanile for fillies and the Silky Sullivan for males, there will be a pair of special statebred allowance races on the turf. The Dollar Day Sunday program includes La Fiesta Hispana, with Hispanic music and a special handicapping tournament.

Heat the Rocks, the runner-up in the California Cup Oaks on turf, ahead of Light One, and second in the Soviet Problem Stakes, ahead of Niassa, looms as the probable favorite in the one-mile Campanile. Grazen Sky, coming off a second in the Echo Eddie Stakes at Santa Anita in his last start, could be favored in his turf debut in the one-mile Silky Sullivan Stakes.