War At Sea wins synthetic debut in Golden Gate Handicap

War At Sea, in his first start on a synthetic track, rallied wide through the stretch to win his first stakes in 17 months in Saturday’s Grade 3 Golden Gate Handicap at 1 1/16 miles at Golden Gate Fields.

Ridden by Frank Alvarado, War At Sea ($15.80) caught 9-1 Silent Poet to win by a head. Tripoli (5-2) finished third, followed by Lammas, I’mgonnabesomebody, Il Bellator, and Supermazel.

War at Sea was timed in 1:44.48.

Alvarado had War At Sea in a stalking position on the backstretch, tracking Silent Poet through a slow pace of 24.29 seconds for the opening quarter-mile and 49.48 for a half-mile.

Silent Poet led into the stretch and looked like a winner with a furlong remaining before War At Sea launched a successful rally.

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War At Sea, owned by Doubledown Stables and trained by Ron Ellis, has won 4 of 14 starts and earned $278,472. The $100,900 Golden Gate Handicap, previously run as the Berkeley Handicap, was War At Sea’s first win since the Cinema Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita in June 2022.

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