The $250,000 Grade 3 San Francisco Mile Stakes is a regularly anticipated feature during the Golden Gate Fields spring meeting. Not only is it a graded stakes with a quarter-million-dollar purse, it’s sandwiched between a great trio of races with the California Derby preceding and the California Oaks following this race.

There isn’t a horse race anywhere in North America — and maybe even the world — that receives more annual scrutiny than the world-famous Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve at Churchill Downs. Considered to be “the most exciting two minutes in sports,” the Kentucky Derby pits 20 lightly raced 3-year-old Thoroughbreds against each other in a battle for supremacy on the first Saturday in May.