Author's note: Back in 2008-09, I attempted to write a book about my experiences working at Bay Meadows Racecourse during its final year, but I eventually abandoned the project.
Recently, a person posted in the Bay Meadows, Golden Gate Fields & Nor Cal Fair Racing Memories Facebook group that she had recently adopted a 22-year-old mare who had been rescued from a kill pen in Oklahoma. She said the mare's name was Bai and Bai and was seeking information about her.
I remembered that I wrote about Bai and Bai's victory over Somethinaboutlaura in the Foster City Handicap on March 1, 2008 at Bay Meadows as part of my attempt at writing a book and promised I would edit and post my account of the race. What I am posting here is a revised version of what I had written in late 2008. It was to be part of a chapter that focused on Russell Baze's and Jerry Hollendorfer's dominance over Northern California racing. Twenty-three minutes before the Foster City, Baze and Hollendorfer competed in the G1 Santa Anita Handicap, with Hollendorfer saddling Heatseeker to victory and Baze finishing 12th aboard the favorite Monterey Jazz, who was trained by Craig Dollase. Hollendorfer trained Somethinaboutlaura and Dollase trained Bai and Bai.
Somethinaboutlaura may not have been as talented as Heatseeker, but she was one of the Jerry Hollendorfer stable’s stars.
The 6-year-old California-bred mare was a daughter of Dance Floor, who had won three graded stakes and was third in the G1 Kentucky Derby and G1 Travers but was unremarkable as sire. Her mother, Crystals of Ice, won four claiming races. Despite Somethinaboutlaura’s humble pedigree, Sue Greene, owner of Woodbridge Farm where Somethinaboutlaura spent the first months of her life, noticed how Somethinaboutlaura stood out from the other foals.
“She was a very forward filly,” Green said. “She wouldn’t take a backwards step away from anybody else and was a little more aggressive. It’s an unknown quality you see—there’s just something about good horses.”
Somethinaboutlaura began her career in the hands of Steve Miyadi, who specialized in claimers, not stakes horses. She won two stakes before her owner Turf Express, a syndicate, decided to cash in on their filly, sending her to the Fasig-Tipton February mixed sale, a horse auction in Kentucky. Then four-years-old, Somethinaboutlaura was bought for $375,000—an all-time record for the sale—by a partnership which included Hollendorfer, his top owner George Todaro, Charles Miller, and John Sikura, owner of Lexington’s Hill ‘n’ Dale in the heart of Lexington’s bluegrass Thoroughbred breeding country.
It was an expensive purchase for a California-bred filly with little pedigree to enhance her eventual value of a broodmare. None of her siblings had won or placed in stakes, and only two had won a race of any kind. Crystal Prediction, an older half-brother, won 15 claiming races in four different states and a younger full brother named Udamanmatt won only a maiden claiming race at Golden Gate Fields. Four of her siblings were unraced. Somethinaboutlaura would have to justify her relatively expensive sales price through her feats on the racetrack.
And she did just that. After the sale, she won nine stakes, including consecutive editions of the G2 A Gleam Handicap at Hollywood Park. While most horses specialize in either sprints or routes on a particular surface, she won stakes at distances ranging from six furlongs to 1 1/16 miles and on dirt, turf, and Golden Gate’s Tapeta Footings synthetic track. She reached the $1 million mark in career earnings with her win in the Pacific Heights Stakes in December 2007 at Golden Gate and earned Grade 1-blacktype by finishing third in a field of four in the Santa Maria Stakes at Santa Anita.
In many ways, Bai and Bai—her chief rival in the Foster City—was a kindred spirit. Like Somethinaboutlaura, Bai and Bai was a chestnut California-bred mare with an unexceptional pedigree. Bai and Bai was the only runner out 10 foals produced out of the mare Bai Shun to earn blacktype. She was bred by Mare’s Nest, which was owned by Bill Nichols, who personally knew Charles Howard, the owner of Seabiscuit.
Nichols provided one of the most poignant anecdotes in Laura Hillenbrand’s book Seabiscuit: An American Legend. When he was a teenager, Nichols walked into Charles Howard’s Buick dealership office in San Francisco to apply for a job. There he saw a painting of a boy kneeling beside a dog. Nichols, unaware that the painting was of Howard’s deceased son Frankie, asked Howard if he was the boy in the picture. According to Hillenbrand, Howard responded by asking “Do you think it looks like me?” Nichols said yes, only then to see tears were running down Howard’s face.
Nichols sold Bai and Bai at the 2004 California Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association’s Northern California Yearling Sale. There she was purchased by Harry Wilson for a mere $3,200, the same price as the cheapest claiming horses on the circuit.
Wilson had walked away with a bargain, whom he placed in the hands of veteran trainer and former jockey Bill Delia. As a 2-year-old, Bai and Bai began her career in maiden claiming races but ended her juvenile campaign by upsetting the California Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita. At three, she won three stakes in Northern California.
Like Somethinaboutlaura, her owners decided to quit while they were ahead, selling Bai and Bai privately at the age of four after she had won the Muir Woods Stakes at Golden Gate and earned graded black type with a second-place finish in the G2 La Cañada at Santa Anita. Her new owner, Beverly Lewis, had twice come within one race of sweeping the Triple Crown with her late husband Bob, winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness with Silver Charm and Charismatic in the 1990s.
Lewis transferred Bai and Bai from Delia to Craig Dollase’s barn in Southern California, and the mare went on to win the Solana Beach Handicap on the turf at Del Mar and the Las Madrinas Stakes at Fairplex Park and place in two graded stakes, including the G1 Lady’s Secret at Santa Anita. The Foster City was a homecoming for Bai and Bai as it was her first start in Northern California since she had finished second in the Alameda County Handicap at Pleasanton almost eight months earlier.
The tale of the tape hinted the Foster City Handicap would be an exciting race, even if the $65,000 purse paled to the $1 million pot of the Santa Anita Handicap. Somethinaboutlaura: 6-years-old, 33 starts, 18 wins, 4 seconds, 4 thirds, $1,116,365 in earnings. Bai and Bai: 5-years-old, 22 starts, 8 wins, 7 seconds, 3 thirds, $592,318 in earnings. The mares had split their two previous head-to-head match-ups. Bettors made Somethinaboutlaura the 11-10 favorite and Bai and Bai the 19-10 second choice.
The six California-bred fillies and mares stood patiently before starter Chuck Burke hit the button, swinging the gates open. Somethinaboutlaura stumbled slightly but she instantly recovered and took the lead 30 yards into the race after being hustled by jockey Kyle Kaenel. Bai and Bai settled into second outside of Somethinaboutlaura and Andover the Cash–who was racing in the colors of William de Burgh, the owner of Heatseeker–-as they entered the clubhouse turn.
Somethinaboutlaura, racing on the lead, ran the opening quarter mile in :24.01, a dawdling pace for a stakes event. Any advantage she would have from the soft tempo, however, was negated by Bai and Bai’s menacing presence to the outside. Racing under Roberto Gonzalez, who was known for his ability to win with front-runners, Bai and Bai was just a length behind the Somethinaboutlaura as they traveled up the backstretch.
They arrived at the half mile in :48.09. At that pedestrian pace, the two favorites had plenty left in reserve and they began to run away from their overmatched opponents.
Entering the far turn, Kaenel had a choice to make. Would he ask Somethinaboutlaura for her best early to try to build an insurmountable lead but risk wearing her out, leaving her vulnerable to a late run from Bai and Bai? Or would he wait for Bai and Bai to draw even with Somethinaboutlaura, leaving the race a sprint to the finish?
Kaenel chose the latter. With 5/16s of a mile left, Bai and Bai was at the throat latch of Somethinaboutlaura. Kaenel then began to push on Somethinaboutlaura’s neck, asking her for more speed without going to the whip.
He had waited too long. Bai and Bai poked her head in front at the top of the lane as the jockeys took out their whips. Somethinaboutlaura responded to the inside, attempting to rebuff the challenge of her younger foe. Their four opponents failed to keep up as the favorites turned for home.
Bai and Bai, Somethinaboutlaura locked in a titanic tussle at the eighth pole, five lengths clear of Swiss Current! said track announcer Michael Wrona.
The mares remained inseparable with a furlong remaining, with Somethinaboutlaura racing a yard outside from the inside rail, with Bai and Bai inches away to her right.
Somethinaboutlaura, the inside is resurgent, Bai and Bai sticking on like gum to your boot!
Carrying five fewer pounds than her high-weighted opponent, Bai and Bai eventually got the upper-hand, taking a slight lead with sixty yards to go. A resilient but vanquished Somehtinaboutlaura shifted to the outside, brushing Bai and Bai, but she could not stop her younger foe from crossing the finish line a little less than one length ahead.
Bai and Bai returned to the Bay Meadows’ winner’s circle for the first time since winning the Palo Alto Handicap in November 2006. A bettor on the grandstand side yelled “Yeah, Bobby!” to congratulate Gonzalez. After Gonzalez dismounted, only one member of the media greeted him: TVG reporter Vic Stauffer.
“Old friends reunited!” said Stauffer before detailing how Gonzalez had been Bai and Bai’s regular rider before she had been sold. “I’ve known her since she was a baby,” Gonzalez responded. “She broke good, but I waited because I didn’t want to get stuck inside. She relaxed, and when horses run that comfortably, you know they are going to finish.”
Kaenel, speaking to California Thoroughbred magazine, chided himself for his ride. “I blew it. We should have kicked away at the three-eighths pole. Instead, we got out-sprinted home.”
Not that many were paying attention to his ride in the Foster City. Instead, bettors were grumbling over his father-in-law’s performance in the Santa Anita Handicap for letting Monterey Jazz wear himself out on the lead.
I returned to the paddock to inspect the horses for that day’s finale, an $8,000 maiden claiming race. There I found Al, gazing at his Daily Racing Form as he tried to figure out which of the nine winless fillies and mares was the fastest, or rather, the least slow.
“I don’t think the eight looks good. The nine looks better than the bloody eight!” he said as the horses walked by.
The handicapper, who half an hour ago had predicted Baze’s loss, surprised me with an aside defending Baze.
“Baze had no choice,” Al said, changing topics to the Big Cap. “He had to let him go.”
Dollase concurred.
“Speed hasn’t been holding up,” he told the press after the race. “But this horse, you got to let him run. A mile and a quarter might have been a little far for him today—I don’t know.”
Jerry Hollendorfer had managed to defeat Dollase and the other Southern California trainers in the Big Cap, but I had a hard time imagining he was happy at the moment. He had just won a $1 million race, but the ultra competitive trainer had just experienced a narrow defeat in another race. I imagined him watching the Foster City on a television monitor at Santa Anita and scowling over Somethinaboutlaura’s defeat as he walked to the paddock to saddle a maiden named Dakota Phone for the Santa Anita nightcap.
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