Sky Preacher noses out Harmonic in Alcatraz

Even-money favorite Sky Preacher got a dream trip, cruising alone on the lead and then holding off Harmonic late to score his initial stakes victory by a nose in the $75,000 Alcatraz Stakes at Golden Gate Fields on Sunday.

Sky Preacher ($4), who missed by one-half length in the $101,000 Oak Tree Juvenile Turf at Del Mar last September, benefitted from Krsto Skye's bolting on the first turn. He was able to get a perfect inside trip and had clear sailing all the way while setting honest fractions of 24.00 seconds, 47.57, and 1:11.62 in the one-mile turf race for 3-year-olds. His final time was 1:36.59. Ride Hard Kowboy was third, another four lengths back.

Harmonic, who ran third in his turf debut in a Del Mar maiden race last September, made a good move into the lane before beginning to lug in. He was straightened out by jockey Ricardo Gonzalez and was flying late, but Sky Preacher, under Alex Solis, had just enough to hold him off.

Solis, who said he thought he had won the photo, said, “He was waiting a little bit down the stretch, and, when I heard the crowd start cheering, I knew someone was coming. I was like, ‘C’mon, keep going.’

“I was lucky that I had time to drop in [approaching the first turn] and avoid having a bad trip. He went to the lead, and he was nice and relaxed.”

Gonzalez said he, too, thought Sky Preacher won the photo.

“Whew, that’s tough. Missed by an inch,” he said. “He switched leads on me [in the lane] when I switched the stick and got to lugging a little bit. I think that might have cost him the race.”

The victory for Sky Preacher, a son of Sky Mesa, was his second in seven starts. An $80,000 Ocala purchase owned by Success Racing, Sky Preacher earned $45,000 to lift his career total to $114,570. He is trained by Doug O'Neill.