This week at Golden Gate Fields
Schedule: Thursday through Sunday Post time: 12:45 p.m., except 11:45 a.m. Saturday Feature simulcast races: Grade 1, $1 million Kentucky Oaks on Friday; Grade 1, $2 million Kentucky Derby on Saturday — both at Churchill Downs A
Update: The grandstand, clubhouse and Top of the Stretch gates open at 7:15 a.m. and the Turf Club at 10 a.m. Friday, and all gates open at 7:15 a.m. Saturday. The first simulcast race from Churchill Downs is scheduled for 7:30 a.m. PDT each day, with the Kentucky Oaks at 3:12 p.m. and the Kentucky Derby at 3:46 p.m. … When Percy’s Bluff won his eighth straight race Saturday, it tied him with A Matter of Style (1996-97) and Barry Chancy (1992) for the fourth-longest winning streak among Bay Area horses. Hap Logue won 11 straight in 1973, Lost in the Fog 10 straight in 2004-05 and Ema Bovary nine straight in 2003-04. Since trainer Jerry Hollendorfer claimed Percy’s Bluff for $20,000 on March 6, 2016, the gelding has nine wins, three seconds and three thirds in 16 starts for $159,608 in earnings. “I’ve got a lot of admiration for Percy’s Bluff,” Hollendorfer said. “Stakes horses have more talent, but horses like him try just as hard. They are the backbone of the business.” The 11⁄16-mile win in 1:42.71 — just 0.56 from the track record — was the first for Percy’s Bluff in a race longer than 6 furlongs during the streak. “He’s just a horse that can do everything,” Hollendorfer said. Percy’s Bluff holds the track record of 56.48 seconds for 5 furlongs. … Alert Bay received a 101 Beyer Speed Figure for his victory in the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile — the first triple-digit figure of the meeting.
Elsewhere: Paradise Woods, who won the Santa Anita Oaks by 11¾ lengths in only her third start and first around two turns, is the 5-2 morning-line favorite in a full field of 14 3-year-old fillies in the Kentucky Oaks. Other prominent entrants are 9-2 Miss Sky Warrior, who has won all five starts since losing her debut; 5-1 Farrell, who has won four straight stakes, including the Golden Rod at Churchill Downs; 5-1 Abel Tasman, a Grade 1 winner who was second in the Santa Anita Oaks; and 6-1 Salty, who romped in the Gulfstream Park Oaks. … Sircat Sally, unbeaten in five starts, runs in the Grade 3, $100,000 Senorita Stakes for Hollendorfer on Saturday at Santa Anita.