by Jeff Lowe

Golden Gate Fields has dropped the San Francisco Mile Stakes (G2) from its stakes schedule for the spring meeting, which will run from May 14 to June 22.

In recent years, the San Francisco Mile has been Golden Gate’s most prestigious race. The one-mile turf event carried a $300,000 purse in 2007 when it was run on April 28 during Golden Gate’s opening weekend.

The meet will begin three weeks later in 2008, and Golden Gate General Manager Robert Hartman said the track was unable to find a suitable spot on the calendar where the San Francisco Mile would not have conflicted with the $250,000 Shoemaker Mile Stakes (G1) on May 26 at Hollywood Park.

Hartman said Golden Gate is being careful to protect the San Francisco Mile’s graded status. A graded race can be dormant for one year without losing its grade. Hartman said the San Francisco Mile would likely return in 2009 and that the purse has been supplemented to other races in the program for ’08.

Jeff Lowe is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer