San Francisco Mile: They'll need help to catch Summer Hit

Will racing’s oldest axiom – pace makes the race – hold true in Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 San Francisco Mile on the Golden Gate Fields turf course? The connections of local contenders Pepnic and Hudson Landing certainly hope so.

The presence of the 4-year-old Horizontalyspeakin gives them hope because he looks like he’ll be a pace rival for Summer Hit, Northern California’s top older runner last year. But even if Horizontalyspeakin can put early pressure on Summer Hit, it might not be enough to stop him.

Trained by Jerry Hollendorfer, Summer Hit loves both the Golden Gate Fields main track (6 wins and 1 second in 7 starts) and turf course (1 win and 1 second in 2 starts) and came within a neck of sweeping the track’s three graded stakes races for older runners last year.

Summer Hit lost the San Francisco Mile by a neck last year, and he prepped for this year’s Mile with a front-running victory over the main track March 15.[bc_video_id:322257:]

Hollendorfer is not concerned about pace pressure because, he said, Summer Hit cruises at high speed but is not a one-dimensional speed freak. Though the 5-year-old Bertrando gelding has a number of wire-to-wire wins, he’s also been headed in races and kept going to victory.

“It doesn’t matter if there’s pressure,” said Hollendorfer. “He runs steadily, and if he’s headed slightly, he might like that better. I think he can do different things.”

Hollendorfer also is sending out multiple stakes winner Longview Drive and Tribal Jewel in the field of eight older runners.

“I think Summer Hit will be one of the favorites, and the other two are doing well,” he said. “It’s an opportunity for both of them to do something.”

Hudson Landing won the Mile in 2012 and will be starting in the race for the fourth straight year. Owner Jared Chappell and trainer Blaine Wright know that Hudson Landing will have a hard time catching Summer Hit if he is fresh for the final furlongs.

“We’re hoping there’s some pace pressure,” said Chappell, a sentiment echoed by trainer Tim McCanna, who claimed the sharp Pepnic from a $62,500 optional-claiming victory March 30 after he’d run second to Summer Hit on March 15.

Horizontalyspeakin has won both of his starts this year in wire-to-wire style at Santa Anita in allowance company. Last year, he set the pace in Santa Anita’s Grade 2 Sir Beaufort at one mile before fading to eighth.

Horizontalyspeakin is trained by John Sadler, who shared the training title with Hollendorfer with 34 victories at the recently completed Santa Anita winter-spring meet.

Pepper Crown and Fast Track, who has won three straight at Turf Paradise, round out the field.