This week at Golden Gate Fields

Schedule: Friday through Sunday Post time: 12:45 p.m. Feature race: $100,000 California Derby on Saturday Feature simulcast race: Grade 2, $200,000 Santa Monica Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita

Update: Vending Machine, who won the Eddie Logan Stakes on Dec. 30 at Santa Anita, is the 2-to-1 morning-line favorite in a field of eight for the California Derby. The 1 ⁄16-mile race for newly turned 3-year-olds also drew Colonel Samsen, who won the Gold Rush Stakes on Dec. 3 at Golden Gate Fields. He is 9-to-2 in the morning line after finishing next-to-last in the Grade 3 Sham Stakes on a sloppy track Jan. 7 at Santa Anita. The rest of the field consists of Secret House (3-to-1), So Conflated (5-to-1), More Power to Him (6-to-1), Zakaroff (10-to-1), Sonneteer (12-to-1) and Aberdeen Island (20-to-1). More Power to Him, who has won two of his three two-turn races, Zakaroff and Aberdeen Island are the local horses in the field. Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux will ride the Peter Miller-trained Vending Machine instead of Sonneteer, a five-race maiden trained by Kent’s brother, Keith. So Conflated, who was placed first by disqualification in his second start, has two-time Kentucky Derby-winning connections: jockey Mario Gutierrez, trainer Doug O’Neill and owner Reddam Racing LLC. They won the Derby

with I’ll Have Another in 2012 and Nyquist in 2016. … Jockey Jerry Olguin, who plans to retire after riding Jan. 29, collected the 2,000th winner of his career on his 44th birthday aboard Dumont in Sunday’s ninth race. … Jockey Irving Orozco, who leads the winter-spring season with 15 winners from 75 mounts, will begin a threeday suspension Sunday for interference aboard Yahoo Tahoe in the fifth race Saturday. Orozco rides Aberdeen Island in the Cal Derby. … Apprentice Cassidy Burg begins a five-day suspension Sunday for interference aboard Native Causeway in the fourth race Saturday.

Elsewhere: The Eclipse Award winners for 2016 will be announced after a banquet Saturday night at Gulfstream Park, and California Chrome is expected to earn his second Horse of the Year title. He won it in 2014. My votes went to California Chrome, Horse of the Year and Older Male; Classic Empire, 2-year-old male; Champagne Room, 2-year-old filly; Arrogate, 3-year-old male; Songbird, 3-year-old filly; Beholder, older female; Drefong, male sprinter; Finest City, female sprinter; Highland Reel, male turf; Tepin, female turf; Rawnaq, steeplechaser; Mike Smith, jockey; Luis Ocasio, apprentice jockey; Bob Baffert, trainer; Juddmonte Farms, owner; WinStar Farm, breeder. … Finest City, making her first start since winning the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint, is the 6-to-5 morning-line favorite against four opponents in the Santa Monica Stakes.