Golden Gate Fields is an American horse racing track straddling both Albany, California and Berkeley, California along the shoreline of San Francisco Bay adjacent to the Eastshore Freeway in the San Francisco Bay Area. With the closing of the Bay Meadows racetrack on May 11, 2008, it became the only such racetrack in Northern California.

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History

Golden Gate Fields began prior to World War II as another racetrack which failed. The site had previously been a marshy area between Fleming Point , a rocky promontory, and the eastern shoreline of San Francisco Bay. In the late 19th century, it was the site of the "Giant Powder Company," manufacturing black powder, dynamite and nitroglycerin. Between 1879 and 1892, the plant blew up four times.

Golden Gate Fields built its new grandstand up against the eastern slope of Fleming Point, and the marsh was filled in for the track. The inaugural meet was on February 1, 1941. In the period just before the war, the track was used as the location of the crime central to the plot of the movie Shadow of the Thin Man . With the onset of World War II, the United States Navy took over the property as the "Albany Naval Landing Force Equipment Depot" for storing hundreds of landing craft destined for use in the Pacific theater. After the war, Golden Gate Fields resumed horse racing.

In 1950, Citation and Noor met in the Golden Gate Handicap. The English bred Noor beat the great Triple Crown Winner Citation, prompting Citation's rider, Steve Brooks, to say, "We just can't beat that horse."

In 1957, Silky Sullivan came to the track and with him came the excitement that followed him throughout his life. Silky Sullivan, nicknamed "the loveable laggard" as well as "The Heart-Attack Horse", a legend in horse racing, is honored by having a stakes race in his name run every year at Golden Gate Fields—Silky Sullivan Handicap. Until the death of Lost in the Fog, he was also the only horse to be buried in the infield. Lost in the Fog's plaque is the third to be placed at Golden Gate Fields, found near the one for Silky Sullivan and that for Bill Shoemaker.

Th infield turf course was opened on February 22, 1972. In 1974, the first $2 million dollar day in Northern California was held on California Derby Day.

In 1984, the great gelding, John Henry, set a course record winning the Golden Gate Handicap.

From 2001 to 2004, Golden Gate Fields was the home track for the Grade III El Camino Real Derby, before returning the race back to Bay Meadows.

Before his death in 2006, Lost in the Fog was based here. On September 17, 2006, he was euthanized due to the inoperable tumors found on his spleen and along his spine. Prior to his early death, Lost in the Fog ran three races at his home base — winning twice, and placing once. On September 30, 2006 Golden Gate Fields held a celebration of his life.

On February 1, 2008, on board the horse Two Step Cat, Russell Baze got his 10,000th career win as a jockey.

The multiple Graded stakes winning Hystericalady, half sister to Funny Cide, is based here.

With the loss of Bay Meadows to developers in 2008, Golden Gate Fields has become Northern California's only ractrack. Its stakes schedule (graded and ungraded) is in flux as officials of California racing shuffle the racing season. It seems that Golden Gate will return to offering both Spring and Autumn racing and with more dates on which to race, more stakes will either appear or return to the track. An example of this is the Silky Sullivan Handicap, slated to be run again after a hiatus of two years.

Physical attributes

The track is set on approximately of land in the cities of Albany and Berkeley; Golden Gate Fields' facilities currently include a one-mile (1,609 m) dirt track and a turf course measuring 9/10 of a mile, or 7 furlongs plus 132 feet (1,448 m), stalls for more than 1,350 horses, a main grandstand with seating for approximately 9,000 customers, a clubhouse with seating for approximately 4,500 customers, a Turf Club with seating for approximately 1,200 customers and parking for over 8,500 cars.

Owned and managed for 25 years by the last owner of Silky Sullivan, the foreign car importer and horseman, Kjell Qvale, Golden Gate Fields is now part of the Magna Entertainment Corp. (who also own Santa Anita Park and the San Luis Rey Downs Training Center Bonsall, California).

The California Horse Racing Board mandated that effective January 1, 2008 Thoroughbred racing facilities in California must install a polymer synthetic type racing surface. During the summer of 2007, the racetrack installed the Tapeta Footings on its main racetrack. The synthetic all-weather racing surface is designed to make racing safer for both horses and riders.

AC Transit, the local bus agency, provides a seasonal bus service, line 304, between the track and North Berkeley BART station. ^[1]

The park lies on what was once part of the slough into which Marin Creek drained.

Golden Gate Fields is described in the song "GGF" by the American punk rock band Rancid.

Racing

Golden Gate Fields is home to the following graded stakes:

• Grade 2 San Francisco Breeders' Cup Mile
• Grade 3 Yerba Buena Breeder's Cup Handicap
• Grade 3 Berkeley Handicap
• Grade 3 The Silky Sullivan Handicap run on the grass.
• Grade 3 All American Stakes
• Grade 3 Golden Gate Fields Turf, 3 Year Olds and up, 11 furlongs, $100,000g, turf.
• Grade 3 Golden Gate Derby aka the California Derby.

It hosts numerous overnight handicaps and ungraded stakes events.

• Alcatraz Stakes, 3 year olds, eight and a half furlongs, turf, $75,000
• Tanforan Stakes, 3 Year Olds and up, one mile and 3/8, turf. $75,000
• Miss America Stakes, Fillies and mares, 3 Year Olds and up, one mile and 1/8, turf. $75,000
• Corte Madera Stakes, 2 Year Old Fillies, one mile. $75,000
• California Oaks
• China Basin Stakes
• Gold Rush Stakes
• Half Moon Bay Stakes
• Lost in the Fog
• Pacific Heights Stakes, 3 Year Olds and up (Cal-breds), one mile and 1/16. $75,000
• Mill Valley Stakes
• Tiburon Handicap, 3 Year Old Fillies, six furlongs. $50,000
• Sausalito Stakes, 3 Year Olds and up, six furlongs. $75,000
• Forty Niner Stakes, 3 Year Olds and up, one mile and 1/16. $75,000
• Campanile Stakes, Fillies and mares, 4 Year Old and up, one mile and 1/16. $75,000
• Stinson Beach Stakes, 3 Year Olds, six furlongs. $50,000
• Oakland Stakes, 3 Year Olds and up, six furlongs. $75,000

See also

• Bay Meadows

Notes and references

A Selective History of the Codornices-University Village... , by Warren and Catherine Lee, Imprint (Albuquerque, N.M.): Belvidere Delaware Railroad Company Enterprises, Ltd., (2000).

1. Special Bus to Golden Gate Fields 10/18/05 AC Transit Marketing, Retrieved 4/24/07