You Lift Me Up wires Work the Crowd

Setting slower fractions than bottom-level $8,000 maiden-claimers in the previous race, favored You Lift Me Up ($4) was never seriously challenged in winning the $50,000 Work the Crowd Stakes at Golden Gate Fields on Saturday.

The 5-year-old mare, the runner-up in last year's edition of the stakes, broke alertly as jockey Russell Baze attempted to get her to take back early. However, she wound up on the lead despite crawling through easy opening fractions of 25.23 seconds and 49.57.

Challenged briefly at the quarter pole by Saucey Evening, You Lift Me Up quickly opened her lead and maintained a two-length margin over Rule the Storm through the stretch. She won the 1 1/16-mile race for California-bred fillies and mares in 1:44.64. Rule the Storm beat Croxie by a length for second.

"I really didn't want to be on the lead but I would have had to strangle her to keep her off it," Baze said. "That's all right. I didn't mind being on an easy lead. You knew when they let her get away with those fractions that she'd be very tough to beat."

You Lift Me Up, owned by winning trainer Jerry Hollendorfer and George Todaro, earned $30,000 for her eighth victory in 31 starts. The daughter of Lord Carson has now won $431,299.