Oaks Blogs

They’re running the Bay Meadows Breeders’ Cup Oaks at Bay Meadows tomorrow (Saturday) and – when you’re thinking Kentucky Oaks – the BMBCO isn’t the first item that jumps into your head. In fact, it might not even been the second, or third, or 12^th.

But one thing you should know about the mile and a sixteenth is that it has been surrounded this year by a man who knows about the Kentucky Oaks – a man, you see, who not only knows about it, but also knows just how to win it.

So when we’re talking Northern California we’re talking – but of course – Jerry Hollendorfer. In fact, Jerry Hollendorfer is Northern California -- right up there next to the Golden Gate Bridge, sourdough bread and Tony Bennett’s heart. And for this 29^th edition of the BMBCO the hardest working trainer north of Santa Barbara is running the favorite…..and the second favorite…..and the third favorite --- in a five-horse field.

Using a speed saddling technique he has mastered over the last two decades, the kingpin conditioner will ready up a trio of soph fillies for the $100 grander, starting with Glorification, followed by Eastlake Avenue and finished by Round Trip Flight.

He could run 1-2-3 in the race sure as shooting. Or maybe he’ll try to put a little twist on it and pull off a triple dead heat. In any event, you can bet against him if you’d like – and you can also pull off the fingernail of your left ring finger with a pair of pliers if you feel like it. Either way, you figure to end up hurting.

Glorification, a gray by the young gray stallion Buddah, has a stakes win and a second in the California Oaks (at Golden Gate) last out. East Lake Avenue, a daughter of a horse Hollendorfer trainer, Globalize, has won three straight, including that California Oaks. And the Monarchos offspring Round Trip Flight gets an interesting spot for her first taste of stakes competition.

So, to the point that we are considering here: could a win by one of them translate into a trip to Louisville and a chance for the Garland of Lillies? Well --- only our man Jerry knows for sure.

But do consider this: the trainer twice before took fillies to Kentucky for the first Friday in May. In 1991 he traveled with a little lassie named Lite Light. In 1996 it was with a missy called Pike Place Dancer. On both occasions, the fillies and their main man got to pose for pictures in the winner’s circle following the day’s feature race.

Hollendorfer had hoped to go to Kentucky this year with a colt named Bwana Bull for a crack at The Roses. But his big plans got put on permanent hold when the Santa Anita Derby didn’t shake down the way he’d projected.

Still, though one dream slipped away, there might yet be another for Jerry, Jerry, Jerry. Three for the Oaks, and maybe a third Oaks, too?