Description: STAR OVER THE BAY 💫Tyler Baze up GERSON Racing Santa Anita 4 x 6 & Two Pinback Buttons ♥️🐴🖤 XLNT 🔴⚫️🔴 Santa Anita Park ~ Los Angeles Turf Club / Arcadia, CA. Hollywood Park / Inglewood, CA. Del Mar Thoroughbred Club / Del Mar, CA. Star Over the Bay will always be one of the most popular horses in Southern California racing. The “Lava Man” of the TURF, Star Over the Bay goes down as one of the greatest claims ever. And his front-running catch me if you can style always gave fans a thrill and was worth the price of admission. He beat so many of the royally bred elite runners from the Hall of Fame barns of Bobby Frankel and Neil Drysdale that fans showed made it a point to show up on weekends to support his races LIVE in-person. Owner Sean Gerson was a leader in championing partnerships and fanfare, much like the Little Red Feather ownership group led by Billie Koch and Gary Fenton of today. Except LOUDER! 🔈🙌🏻👏🏻😅 Mr. Gerson certainly brought tremendous energy to the races just by sheer volume of people. Every Winners Circle Photo eventually required a WIDE ANGLE lens. And that’s the beauty of thoroughbred racing partnerships. With lower the barriers to entry, anyone and everyone can experience the excitement ownership. For your viewing pleasure — Star Over the Bay’s Sunset Handicap at Hollywood Park July, 2004 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cEMiS9DT8RA About this Lot These vintage pinback buttons are from the Gerson Racing / G Racing promotional days surrounding the famous Southern California turf marathoner Star Over the Bay. Fan engagement was an important part of Gerson Racing. In fact, the Red, Black and Inverted Chevron racing silks are still regionally prominent today, mainly in Florida (Gulfstream Park) and Kentucky (Keeneland and Churchill Downs) under “Starry Night Racing” led by Rachel Gerson. Stored with complete care in protective sleeve. Buttons and photo all in excellent unused condition. From smoke-free pet-free environment. 4 x 6 original personal photo taken at Santa Anita Park on Kodak Xtralife Paper. Frameable! 🖼️👌🏻😎 Hopefully, Star Over the Bay is looking down from above and smiling on this auction as he is still being remembered today. 🙏🏼✨🖤🐴💫♥️ Star Over the Bay 🐴💫 (via Wikipedia) Star Over The Bay (foaled February 5, 1998, in Florida) was a Thoroughbred racehorse who rose from the claimer ranks and earned more than $700,000. In early 2004, at age five, the light gray was claimed at Hollywood Park. Under the guidance of new trainer Mike Mitchell, he soon won three consecutive graded turf races, including the 2004 Grade II Sunset Handicap in a wire-to-wire effort. Star Over The Bay's biggest win came in the January 2005 running of the Sunshine Millions Turf at Santa Anita Park under Eclipse Award-winning jockey Tyler Baze. An excerpt from thoroughbredracing com site and the one and only Jay Hovdey — Jay HovdeyJULY 24, 2024 Star Over The Bay: ‘A big, vibrant beast who flashed like a comet across the western sky’ – Jay Hovdey remembers a blue collar turf hero The Thoroughbred named Star Over The Bay rose from virtual anonymity to become a rising star in Southern California, where reinvention in a climate of dry summers and firm turf has helped many a racehorse find a second act. He was a big, vibrant beast who flashed like a comet across the western sky in 2004, winning three of the most significant grass races of the season with an audacious display of front-running style that was reminiscent of the great mare Pink Pigeon, a popular personality of the late 1960s. Winging on a long leadAnd while he ended his career with just 10 wins from 43 starts, it was the final year of his life that Star Over The Bay soared to exciting heights – the white horse out there winging on a long lead, daring the rest to follow and then fighting tooth and nail when the opposition inevitably came to challenge.“There’s not a day that goes by I don’t think about him,” said Sean Gerson, who raced Star Over The Bay with a large collection of partners dressed in their red stable colors when he ran, like rabid fans of a Big Ten team. In terms of family connections, Star Over The Bay was hardly a fluke. His dam, Lituya Bay, was a foal of 1990 bred and raced by Aaron and Marie Jones and trained by Lazaro Barrera. In her fourth start, Lituya Bay won a maiden race at Saratoga, always a good credential. She then went west for the Oak Leaf Stakes at Santa Anita and ran squarely into the freakish Landaluce, so her fourth-place finish was hardly embarrassing. That December, Lituya Bay took the Turkish Trousers Stakes at Hollywood Park for a piece of black type, after which she required a six-month break before coming back as a three-year-old to win the San Clemente Stakes on the grass at Del Mar. A lot of familyLituya Bay also brought a lot of family to the party. She was a daughter of Empery, a son of Vaguely Noble who won only two of his eight starts, but one of those wins came in the 1976 Epsom Derby. Her dam, Reason To Please, never raced but didn’t really have to. She was a full-sister to Bold Reasoning, the sire of Seattle Slew. A few generations earlier, the female side could lay claim to Belmont Stakes winner Bounding Home. Lituya Bay raced once at four before retiring to the breeding shed for the Joneses, where she produced one modest winner before being sent through the 1988 Keeneland November sale. Jeff Schwietert, who was ramping up the breeding operation at his family’s Four Horsemen’s Ranch in Ocala, Fla., grabbed Lituya Bay for $27,000. It was a steal. Lituya Bay’s first seven foals for Four Horsemen’s were winners, beginning with Lord Of The Bay, who took the 1992 Laurel Futurity and World Appeal on the grass. Dan’s Bet won the 1994 City of Miami Stakes over a field that included major stakes winners Val’s Prince, Diplomatic Jet, and Suave Prospect. Breathtaking View won a small stakes at Monmouth Park before being sold to the Maktoum operation in Dubai, where he ran against the likes of Fantastic Light and High-Rise before commencing a second career as a British hurdler. Then came Star Over The Bay, foaled at Four Horsemen’s on Feb. 5, 1998, a result of Lituya Bay’s first mating with Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Cozzene. By then, Cozzene already had sired Breeders’ Cup winners Alphabet Soup and Tikkanen, as well as Arlington Million winner Star Of Cozzene. As a yearling, Star Over The Bay failed to make his $140,000 reserve at the 1999 Keeneland September sale. As a two-year-old, he went to the Keeneland April sale and went home to Four Horsemen’s again when his $230,000 reserve was not attained, then began training with John Salzman, Sr. Salzman, a well-respected figure on the Mid-Atlantic circuit, had Star Over The Bay ready to run that July 2000. At the time, the stable star was another two-year-old by the name of Xtra Heat, who would go on to win her first six races, a championship at age three, and a place in the Hall of Fame. Hardly precociousStar Over The Bay was hardly that precocious, although he was pitched into three minor stakes events before he won a maiden race on the Gulfstream Park turf in his first start at three. After 10 more starts and a pair of allowance wins for Salzman, Star Over The Bay was switched to the stable of Tim Ritvo. In March 2002, still racing for Ritvo and Four Horsemen’s, Star Over The Bay emerged from a poor showing in the Equalize Stakes at Gulfstream Park with a problem that kept him in the sidelines for more than a year. Soon after his return, in May 2003, he was dropped into the claiming ranks. Over the next four months, he could have been taken for anywhere from $35,000 to $60,000 – but there were no takers. The second, spectacular chapter in the Star Over The Bay saga began in late 2003 when he was purchased privately by Patricia and Stephen Fitzpatrick on the recommendation of California-based trainer Vladimir Cerin. On Valentine’s Day of 2004, Star Over The Bay made his West Coast debut for $62,500 claiming price. He finished fourth, then came right back to win at the same level three weeks later. Clearly, Star Over The Bay was beginning to thrive for his new stable. On May 16, 2004, he was entered for a price tag of $80,000 going a mile on the grass at Hollywood Park. The risk seemed reasonable, since this was a six-year-old gelding who had won only five of 34 lifetime starts. But that risk did not account for the interest of Sean Gerson and his trainer, Mike Mitchell. ‘That’s why I’m calling’“I’d been looking at a race called the Dallas Turf Cup at Lone Star Park,” Gerson said recently. “It didn’t seem like it took much to win it, and they offered a nice purse. So I get a call from Mike one day asking if I’ve noticed this horse, Star Over The Bay. I told him I had, but I’d only want to claim him if we ran him at Lone Star.” Mitchell’s reply: “That’s why I’m calling.”One month after the claim, Star Over The Bay was in Texas, carrying the hopes of his new owners in the $200,000 Dallas Turf Cup. Their number was legion. Gerson Racing included about 20 partners with small shares, along with Carl VanBurger and Landon Vaughn, two of Gerson’s racetrack acquaintances. Their horse finished second by a neck, caught only at the very end by local longshot Maysville Slew. The result was encouraging. Star Over The Bay would have been eligible for any number of lesser West Coast events, but his people chose to toss him to the wolves in the Sunset Handicap at Hollywood Park on July 18, a mile-and-a-half turf test that had been won by the likes of John Henry, Exceller, Sirlad, and Sandpit. For the Sunset, Star Over The Bay was reunited with Tyler Baze, the young sensation who had ridden the horse twice while trained by Cerin. Walking his beat on the front end, Star Over The Bay held off Continuously, the odds-on choice trained by Bobby Frankel, to win by a nose. “I got into forming partnerships because I wanted to share the thrill of winning a race,” Gerson said. “The Sunset was my first Grade 1 win, and having all those people with the horse in the winner’s circle was the greatest day I’d ever had in racing.” The Sunset also let Baze put a cherry on top of the championship of the Hollywood Park summer meet. Only 21, he was riding for most of the major stables and winning graded stakes. However, he admits he was still learning every step of the way, and Star Over The Bay provided invaluable lessons. “He was a cool horse to ride,” Baze said. “His stride was amazing. He taught me a lot about listening to the horse, and about how to save a horse’s energy without discouraging them. I don’t really know how to explain it.” Then he did. “Some horses will go at a faster pace than others while still reserving plenty of energy,” Baze said. “With him it didn’t matter what the clock said. If I tried to make him go the pace I might have preferred, it would have been a struggle, and he would have been using up energy in the struggle. No better feeling“There’s no better feeling than to be on a speed horse like him, and when you break, you’re already a length in front. They throw their ears forward, and you know they’re out there just having fun.” Baze followed the script to perfection with Star Over The Bay in the Del Mar Handicap on Aug. 29 and the Clement L. Hirsch Memorial Turf Championship at Santa Anita on Oct. 3. His immediate victim in each race was Gary Tanaka’s Sarafan – by a neck and then three-quarters of a length – the same Sarafan who came within a nose of beating Falbrav in the 2002 Japan Cup. At the end of 2004, Gerson and Mitchell felt obligated to give the Breeders’ Cup Turf a try with their streaking gray. So it was back to Lone Star Park, where the adventure began, only this time against an array of talent that included Kitten’s Joy, Powerscourt, and Better Talk Now. When a torrential storm ripped through the area on the night before the race, Star Over the Bay lost all chance. Soft ground was not his friend, and Baze knew it. “Don’t bet,” the jockey warned Gerson after getting a leg-up on his partner for the race. Good advice. Star Over The Bay was able to set an easy pace on a long lead, but deep ground was taking its toll with every stride. By the time the field reached the final furlongs, the gray horse was spent. Baze geared him down, living to fight another day. For more on the story of Star Over The Bay.. visit the thoroughbredracing com site. https://www.thoroughbredracing.com/articles/6324/star-over-bay-big-vibrant-beast-who-flashed-comet-across-western-sky-jay-hovdey-remembers-blue-collar-turf-hero/ 🔴⚫️🔴 Be sure to consider other items currently available as we celebrate Breeders Cup week at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club. Many more listings in the coming days so stay tuned… >>> FAST SHIPPING 🚀 <<< As always, shipping will be adjusted for multiple purchases - combining items for all in one ship when possible. INTERNATIONAL bidders welcome. When applicable, eBay Standard International Shipping will be utilized for quicker delivery at improved cost and an adjustment will be made. Bid with Absolute Confidence.Thank you for visiting!🐴💫
Price: 12.5 USD
Location: Garden Grove, California
End Time: 2024-11-06T22:22:17.000Z
Shipping Cost: 4.63 USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
All returns accepted: ReturnsNotAccepted
Jockey: Tyler Baze
Brand: Star Over The Bay Santa Anita Park / pre post Sunshine Millions
Sport: Horse Racing
Color: Black Red / Inverted Chevron / Red Cap GRAY GREY
Product: Pinback Button / Photo
Event/Tournament: Star Over The Bay / Santa Anita Park / pre post Sunshine Millions