San Francisco Mile attracts eight entries for grade 3 turf test.
After a rare off-the-board finish, the connections of Neptune’s Storm will send the grade 2 winner north for the $250,000 San Francisco Mile Stakes (G3T) June 14 at Golden Gate Fields.
Trained by Richard Baltas, Neptune’s Storm made his seasonal debut May 25 in the Shoemaker Mile Stakes (G1T) on the Santa Anita Park turf but after moving to the lead a half-mile into that test, the 4-year-old Stormy Atlantic gelding faded to seventh.
That finish ended a stretch of 12 straight races that Neptune’s Storm had won or placed in races, including three stakes wins last year topped by the Hill Prince Stakes (G2T) at Belmont Park.
Neptune’s Storm will be making his Golden Gate debut Sunday and jockey Irving Orozco will be aboard for the first time.
He won’t be alone in making the journey from Southern California to Northern California for Sunday’s mile turf test for 3-year-olds and older as trainer Neil Drysdale has entered a pair in grade 3 winner Simply Breathless, who won last year’s Golden Poppy Stakes on the Golden Gate course; and Majestic Eagle, a grade 3 winner who enters off a sixth-place finish in the Feb. 8 Thunder Road Stakes (G3T) on the Santa Anita turf.
Trainer Doug O’Neill, who won the 2019 San Francisco Mile with Blitzkrieg, has entered Murad Khan off three straight turf sprint races, including one win and third-place finish in the San Simeon Stakes (G3T).
