Alameda County Fair Saturday Stakes Story
By Dennis Miller
On the first Sunday of the Alameda County Fair horse racing meet, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer had his horses run first and second in the Livermore Valley Wine Stakes.
Saturday in the third stakes race of the Fair – the Alameda County Fillies and Mares Stakes – Hollendorfer went one better, taking the first three spots. Halo Dolly, the prohibitive favorite, cruised to the win under the guidance of Russell Baze.
About the only thing that went wrong for Baze and Halo Dolly was the start of the race when the horse had a poor start.
“She blew out from behind,” said Baze. “That wasn’t the way I wanted to start the race. Other than that, everything went fine.”
As for Hollendorfer, it seemed the lone suspense of the day was seeing how the pace played out.
“I wasn’t sure if Frank (Alvarado) would take his horse out,” said Hollendorfer of Alvarado’s mount, Inner Groove. “If he did, we could have sat second. But I think Russell was set on getting the lead.”
He was and did. Without anyone else willing to jump out and set the pace, Baze was able to cruise to splits of 24.62 and 48.17. By the time they headed for home, Halo Dolly had a lot of gas left in the tank and cruised to the win.
Cathy’s Crunches was second and Anniversary Girl was third to complete the Hollendorfer sweep.
