By Bloodhorse.com
ALBANY, Calif. (Nov. 29, 2015) — Silver Ranch Stable and Wachtel Stable’s California-bred Poshsky rallied in the stretch and just got up to defeat longshot Pepper Crown in the $100,000 Grade III Berkeley Handicap at Golden Gate Fields Nov. 29.
Ridden by Russell Baze for trainer Peter Miller, Poshsky shipped in from Southern California after a Nov. 6 victory in an allowance race on the grass at Del Mar. The 5-year-old gelding by Vronsky, out of the Bold Badgett mare Pinky’s Posh, was bred by Old English Rancho and Berumen. He had won once on a synthetic surface before, and is now one-for-one on the Tapeta at Golden Gate.
Poshsky tracked in third while Ankeny Hill set fractions of :24.03 for the opening quarter-mile and :48.40 for the half-mile. The leader picked up the pace through six furlongs in 1:11.93, but his advantage began to diminish after a mile in 1:36.35. Pepper Crown, last at the half-mile mark, moved up on the rail and grabbed a one-length in the stretch, but couldn’t contain Poshsky, who nailed him by a neck in 1:42.70 for 1 1/16 miles.
Favored G. G. Ryder finished third. Poshsky paid $9 to win as the third choice in the Berkeley.
“(Miller) told me, ‘Put him in the race,’ ” Baze said. “He jumped out of there and wanted to run, so I just let him run. If I wanted to take him back, it seemed like he would have settled for me. It just didn’t seem like the wise thing to do given the circumstances.
“I think he’s a very versatile horse. I think the main thing with him is that he’s such a big, long-striding horse you have to get him in a position where you don’t have to be checking him inside the three-eighths pole.”
Poshsky won for the sixth time in 22 starts with earnings of $313,320. He also has three seconds and third.