G.G. Ryder captures San Francisco Mile

G.G. Ryder didn’t have to worry about archrival Pepper Crown in Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,315 San Francisco Mile because he ran well ahead of him for the entire race. Instead, it was Summer Hit, G.G. Ryder’s Jerry Hollendorfertrained stablemate, whom he had to overcome.

Summer Hit, the runner-up in the Mile the previous two years, took the early lead as usual Saturday and set a comfortable pace of 24.73 seconds, 49.40 and 1 minute, 13.34 seconds on the turf course listed as “good” after the overnight rain.

Longshot Tiz Dynamic kept within a length of Summer Hit until the latter shed him at the top of the stretch and took a 2-length lead. G.G. Ryder, who had been running in third and fourth on the inside about 3 lengths behind Tiz Dynamic, fled the rail turning for home and took off after Summer Hit.

G.G. Ryder caught his stablemate in the final 50 yards, never really putting him away but prevailing by a half-length in 1:37.87 for his ninth win in 18 starts. All of his victories have come in 14 starts at Golden Gate Fields, and he has won four of five on its turf course.

“I knew they were going slow up front, and I thought they’d go a little faster,” winning jockey Ricardo Gonzalez said. “But he’s a nice horse. All you have to do is get him in the right spot and he’ll come through for you. If a horse gets next to him, he’ll just pin his ears back and fight.”

Summer Hit lost by a neck to Tigah in the 2013 S.F. Mile and by three-quarters of a length to Pepper Crown in 2014, both times after leading in midstretch like the 2015 edition. This time, however, he had had just one sprint prep after nine months off.

“He was going very comfortably, and when we turned for home I asked him and he gave me that push and I thought they were never going to catch him,” said Russell Baze, Summer Hit’s jockey. “Then down around the eighth pole, it was like, ‘I’m trying, boss, I’m trying,’ but there wasn’t much left in the tank. It was a lot to ask off of one short prep and on a soft turf course, which is not his best going.”

Summer Hit has won 11 of 23 starts and eight of 12 at Golden Gate Fields, including the Grade 3 All American Stakes and Berkeley Handicap in 2013 and the All American Stakes in 2014.

Saturday’s meeting was the sixth in the past 5½ months between G.G. Ryder and Pepper Crown, and G.G. Ryder now has prevailed four times.

Pepper Crown rallied from last place to finish fourth Saturday, 2 lengths behind G.G. Ryder.

Carr out of hospital: Jockey Dennis Carr, who suffered a head injury in a starting gate incident April 19, was released from Highland Hospital on Friday and plans to return to his home in upstate New York.