Golden Gate Opens With Miss America

San Francisco’s Golden Gate Fields has opened its 2013 Fall Meet and will feature 36 days of racing running to December 15. Live racing will take place every Thursday through Sunday afternoon, with the first post at 12:45 PM. There will also be a special Monday card on Veterans’ Day, November 11.  There are seven stakes races scheduled throughout the meet, starting opening weekend with the $50,000 Miss America Stakes for fillies and mares three-years-old and up, running 1 1/16 miles in the turf.

Stormy Lucy gets to stretch her legs

The race has drawn a competitive field of eight starters, including a couple that have displayed some talent at the graded-stakes level. That would include Stormy Lucy, winless so far this year, but who last season managed a pair of in-the-money finishes in Grade I events, coming from off the pace in both at long odds. Those races were at 1 1/8 and 1 1/4 miles, and in her most recent she’s been trying much shorter, including six-furlongs on the poly last time, so the stretch out on turf could help if she doesn’t wait too long on her best run.

Luscious Lonna will be trying to step up 

Also expected to draw some interest at the betting windows is the California-bred defending Miss America champ Halo Dolly, last year’s winner of the Grade II Yellow Ribbon at Del Mar, and this year’s winner of the Grade III Wilshire at Hollywood Park. In between those she ran fourth in the Grade I Gamely, with all three in front of her expected to start in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf. Although off a long layoff, an interesting outsider is Luscious Lonna, who won last out in April, in her first stakes try and at this track and distance .