Alvarado Perfect With 5 Rides at Golden Gate

Jockey Frank Alvarado was perfect at Golden Gate Fields Feb. 24, winning with all five of his mounts on the eight-race program. Three of his victories came aboard horses trained by Steve Specht, who also won every race in which he participated.
 
The trainer-jockey combination of Specht and Alvarado has been a strong angle for Bay Area handicappers for many years and the duo showed why once more. They teamed up to win the first race with Ur My Dixie Girl ($11), who ran down stablemate Skye Memo in the final strides to score by a neck. The $1 all-Specht exacta returned $39.50.
 
Alvarado sat out the second and third races and then captured the fourth race with 18-1 outsider Tribal Tribute ($38.20), a first-time starter trained by Tim McCanna.
 
He didn’t have a mount in the fifth race, but came back to win the sixth and seventh races with the Specht-trained runners Dixico ($5) and Ermine's Prayer ($5.20). The $2 Specht double covering the sixth and seventh races paid $16.
 
Alvarado capped off his big afternoon with a victory in the eighth race aboard the Val Rhoden-trained Posseante ($13.80), who upset 1-2 favorite Slycy.