Jeff Bonde, trainer (Beniot photo)

  Trainer Jeff Bonde won seven races, including both Thoroughbred stakes, during the first week of the Pleasanton meet. His wins came from 10 runners entered in nine races.

        Bonde was working at his barn Monday morning, pinching himself to see if he was, as he put it, “in horse heaven.”

        “I’ve been training a long time and never had something like this,” said Bonde, who is from Pleasanton.

       Bonde’s big week began when his first starter, Tango Mango, set a track record of 55.69 in winning a five-furlong race for a $12,500 claiming tag on opening day last Wednesday. Bonde went 3 for 4 on Thursday, winning with 2-year-old maidens Izzy Rules, Cruzin Topless, and Norcal Invader, before Noel’s Vixen stumbled badly leaving the gate and ran last. On Friday, he won with another maiden, Island Drifter, and also ran eighth with Gold Star.

     Favored Excessive Passion won Saturday’s Everett Nevin for Bonde, with stablemate Ministers Power seventh. Sierra Sunset won Sunday’s Alamedan Handicap.

      Bonde joked that after Tango Mango’s victory there wasn’t room in the winner’s circle for the horse because there were so many of his friends there. It was no joke after the Alamedan. There were so many people crowded into the winner’s circle that the photo had to be taken on the main track because the winner’s circle was overflowing.

     Despite his big week, Bonde leads the Pleasanton training race by only one winner over Billy Morey, who had 6 winners, 6 seconds and 1 third from 17 starters.

     Russell Baze stands alone in the jockey standings, with 13 wins from 29 starts. He also has 9 seconds and 2 thirds.

SUMMER BIRD BREEZES

    According to Mike Farrell of the DRF, Belmont Stakes winner Summer Bird had his first breeze at Monmouth Park on Monday morning, an easy five furlongs in 1:04.40.

     The colt arrived here Friday to prepare for the $1 million Haskell Invitational for 3-year-olds on Aug. 2. Summer Bird galloped over the track Saturday and Sunday, leading to his first timed drill on the strip with exercise rider Leo Atempa aboard.

     “It was fine, just what we wanted,” trainer Tim Ice said. “He stretched his legs and he galloped out very strong. We usually pull him up at the half-mile pole, but the rider couldn’t get him pulled up to the three-eighths. It was just an easy maintenance work. We’ll get more into him as we get closer to the race.”

      It was Summer Bird’s second work since the Belmont. He turned in an identical five furlongs in 1:04.40 at Louisiana Downs on June 27.

 QUALITY ROAD BACK ON TRACK

      David Grening (DRF) reports that Florida Derby winner Quality Road returned to the work tab on Sunday and if his training schedule goes uninterrupted for the next month, he could return to the races the first week of the Saratoga meet, trainer Todd Pletcher said. However, Pletcher is looking more at the Grade 2, $150,000 Amsterdam Stakes for 3-year-olds going 6 1/2 furlongs on Aug. 3 than he is the Grade 2, $500,000 Jim Dandy Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on Aug. 1.

      “I’d say it’s going to be a tall order to make the Jim Dandy,” Pletcher said Sunday afternoon after winning the Grade 2 Tom Fool with his 3-year-old Munnings. “The most likely scenario is if he is going to run that weekend it would be in the Amsterdam. We’ll just have to play it by ear. He’s got three or four more breezes between now and then.”

      On Sunday morning, Quality Road went four furlongs in 49.72 seconds over Belmont Park’s main track. It was his first work since he went three furlongs on June 8 and his first breeze since moving into Pletcher’s barn on June 15.

     Pletcher said he thought Sunday’s work went well, adding “it puts us in a position to start picking it up a little bit.”

AROUND THE TRACK

     Golden Gate Fields, which concluded a 114-day meeting on June 14, averaged $2.6 million per day in all-sources wagering on its races, according to figures provided by the track. Ontrack handle averaged $209,320.

      Because of the length of the meet, meaningful comparisons could not be drawn with past seasons at Golden Gate.

      “We had some of our biggest attendance days sprinkled through the meet, with 8,000 on New Year’s Day and closing day and a day with 11,000,” said Golden Gate Fields general manager Robert Hartman. “Consistency turned out to be a big positive for us. The fans and horsemen hung in with us during the long meet.”

     Handle rose dramatically at the the San Joaquin County Fair in Stockton, which ran for nine days, from June 18-28. The increase was attributable in part to a change in schedule. Last year, the meet was held in September, when there was no fair.

      On-track handle on the races at Stockton increased 28 percent, with all-source handle up 22 percent.

RACHEL ALEXANDRA WORKS AT SARATOGA

    David Grening of the Daily Racing Form reports that Preakness-winning filly Rachel Alexandra worked four furlongs in 50.67 seconds Monday morning at Saratoga, her first breeze since her record-setting performance in the Grade 1 Mother Goose at Belmont Park on June 27.