Top finishers in record-setting horse race to meet again

In a reprise of their budding rival ry, I’ m gonna be somebody and Freeport Joe, who finished 1-2 three-quarters of a length apart in a record-setting Joseph T. Grace Stakes on Nov. 5, run against each other again on Saturday at Golden Gate Fields.

The distance and surface are the same — 1 1⁄16 miles on the Tapeta Footings Synthetic main track — but the honors and riches are higher in the form of the Grade III $100,000 Berkeley Handicap.

Taking advantage of a speedfavoring track in the Grace, I’ m gonna be somebody set a fast pace and kept going to finish in 1:41.95, while Freeport Joe rallied from last place. The previous record of 1:42.15 was set by Now Victory in 2007 — the year Golden Gate Fields replaced its conventional dirt track with Tapeta.

In a Tapeta allowance race Sept .30, Freeport Joe beat runner-up I’ m gonna be somebody by 4¼ lengths. Their only previous meeting came on grass Sept. 26,2021, with I’ m gonna be somebody prevailing by a length.

I’ m gonna be somebody often merely jogs between races, and he hasn’t recorded a timed workout since Aug. 25. Freeport Joe loves serious training — as long as it’s at Golden Gate Fields.

“I’ve been running him so often because I can’t train him so much,” said Bill McLean, who train sand co-owns I’ m gonna be somebody .“The last time I tried to work him was out of the starting gate; I wasn’t here but somebody called me and said your horse won’t work.”

I’ m gonna be somebody, who has won six of 14 starts, was such a handful when he first came to the track that he didn’t race until halfway through his 3-year-old season in 2021.

“He almost got ruled off the track as a 2-hear-old, he was acting so bad,” McLean said. “We sent him back to the training center, and they said he was doing great. But he’d come back to the racetrack and act up. He’d go to the training center more often than he’d go to the track.”

Something must have spurred I’ m gonna be somebody’ s mind this week, however, because after his usual jogs, he has been galloping seriously.

“I was surprised,” McLean said. “I’m just waiting for him to jog 2 miles and there he is galloping by me. I think he thinks he’s in a tougher race for $100,000 so he better do more. At least he can run, so you put up with him.”

Freeport Joe, who has six wins and two seconds in his past eight Tapeta starts, signaled he’s ready for Saturday’s race with a half-mile workout in 48 seconds Nov. 17.

“He’s just kind of homebody kind of a guy,” trainer Gloria Haley

said. “He likes having his goats and chickens as his pets. His stall is kind of solitary; his world has to be kind of simple. We keep all the same horses around him to keep him happy. He just loves it here. I’ve been blessed to have him.”

I’ m gonna be somebody is the 9-5 morning-line favorite for Saturday’s race, and Freeport Joe is 2-1. Lammas, who finished third in the Joseph T. Grace Stakes, is 4-1. Completing the short field are Southern California-based Rip City (4-1) and Tulsa Tornado (9-2), both making their first appearance in a stakes event.