Baze makes wrong pick; Hollendorfer still wins

Russell Baze had his choice of Jerry Hollendorfer-trained 2-year-olds in Saturday’s $54,200 Golden Nugget Stakes at Golden Gate Fields, and he chose to ride Zeewat over Outside Nashville.

“It’s not the first time I’ve been wrong,” Baze said after Outside Nashville won the 6-furlong race by 4½ lengths in 1:09.54 — the fastest clocking of the fall season — and Zeewat finished third. “I worked them both (earlier in the week), and I thought Zeewat worked better.”

Baze also had ridden both horses in races, guiding Zeewat to victory in his debut and the Cavonnier Stakes at the Sonoma County Fair and piloting Outside Nashville to a 3-length win in a maiden race Oct. 20. Zeewat was ridden by Joe Talamo when running fourth in the Tim Conway Stakes on Oct. 6 at Santa Anita, and Outside Nashville was ridden by Corey Nakatani in his first two starts at Del Mar.

Dennis Carr, who has returned to Golden Gate Fields after riding in New York for five years, was the recipient of Baze’s mistake Saturday.

Carr had Outside Nashville up on the flank of Strong Wind soon after the start, while Zeewat was 3 lengths back in third. Outside Nashville began to pull away from Strong Wind at the top of the stretch and kicked home impressively.

“That was pretty much a no-brainer,” Carr said. “My job was to keep it honest up front so one of us gets there, but my horse was all racehorse today. When we were turning for home, I knew it would take something special to run him down.”

Outside Nashville and Zeewat both went off at 2-to-1 in the field of six, with Strong Wind the 17-to-10 favorite after running in four straight stakes in Southern California, winning one.

“I had two horses to run, and if either of them won it would make me happy,” Hollendorfer said by phone from Hollywood Park, where his Fury Kapcori came within a half-length and a clean trip of winning the $100,000 Real Quiet Stakes. (Carving did instead.)

Outside Nashville and Zeewat probably will meet again going 1 mile in the $75,000 Gold Rush Stakes on Dec. 8, and Hollendorfer said Carr would keep the mount on Saturday’s winner.

“Dennis has come back to ride at Golden Gate, and I always liked his riding,” Hollendorfer said. “He’s as good as anybody when he’s riding well.”