Big Cazanova Visits Golden Gate for Berkeley

Big Cazanova is 3-for-3 on the old synthetic surface at Del Mar, and now trainer Peter Miller will see if he can carry his affinity for an artificial track to the $100,000 Berkeley Handicap (gr. III) Nov. 29 at Golden Gate Fields.

The 6-year-old graded stakes winner makes his first visit to Golden Gate in the 1 1/16-mile test on Tapeta, where he will tote second-high weight of 120 pounds in a field of nine and is the 9-5 favorite on the morning line.

Perennial leading rider Russell Baze gets the mount on the Giant's Causeway   ridgling, an Argentina-bred who races for Wachtel Stable, Gary Barber, Brous Stable, and Dona Licha. Big Cazanova has raced on synthetic, turf, and dirt in his 27-race career, and comes off runner-up finishes over the lawn in his past two starts, an Oct. 30 mile allowance at Del Mar and the Sept. 27 City of Hope Mile (gr. IT) at Santa Anita Park. He took the Native Diver (gr. III) on the synthetic at Del Mar last Nov. 29 to claim his first North American graded victory, and has not won in seven starts since then.

Jerry Hollendorfer and George Todaro's G. G. Ryder is one with Golden Gate experience and is the 121 highweight; the 4-year-old Cal-bred is a two-time graded stakes winner at the Northern California oval and last year was a closing second in this race. G. G. Ryder was second by a nose to Alert Bay in a Nov. 6 allowance on the Golden Gate turf last out; the same Alert Bay who handed Big Cazanova his City of Hope defeat. Ricardo Gonzalez, the colt's regular rider who was aboard earlier this season for victories in both the All American Stakes (gr. III) and the San Francisco Mile (gr. III), has the call from post 6.

Another Southern California-based runner making his Golden Gate debut is Alain and Gerard Wertheimer's grade II winner Silentio, who makes his second synthetic surface trip after running third in the 2014 Pat O'Brien Stakes (gr. II) in his only start to date that was not on the lawn.

With only two starts under his girth this season, the 6-year-old son of Silent Name must rebound from a sixth in the City of Hope and a fifth in the Frank E. Kilroe Mile Stakes (gr. IT) for trainer Gary Mandella. He does have significant back-class, with a third in the 2013 Breeders' Cup Mile (gr. IT) and a heartbreaker of a nose loss in that year's Kilroe. But he has struggled to regain the good form he demonstrated even last summer, when he ran a trio of thirds in graded company, including the Shoemaker Mile (gr. IT). Alex Solis has the mount from the outside post.