The Half Moon Bay Stakes is an American ungraded stakes race for

Thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are c ...

horses The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

held on the grass at

Golden Gate Fields Golden Gate Fields is an American horse racing track straddling both Albany, California and Berkeley, California along the shoreline of the San Francisco Bay adjacent to the Eastshore Freeway in the San Francisco Bay Area. With the closing of t ...

Albany, California Albany ( ) is a city on the east shore of San Francisco Bay in northwestern Alameda County, California. The population was 20,271 at the 2020 census. History In 1908, a group of local women protested the dumping of Berkeley garbage in their ...

. For

fillies A filly is a female horse that is too young to be called a mare. There are two specific definitions in use: *In most cases, a ''filly'' is a female horse under four years old. *In some nations, such as the United Kingdom and the United States, t ...

and

mares A mare is an adult female horse or other equine. In most cases, a mare is a female horse over the age of three, and a filly is a female horse three and younger. In Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a female horse more than four y ...

, three-year-olds and up, it is run at a distance of eight and a half

furlong A furlong is a measure of distance in imperial units and United States customary units equal to one eighth of a mile, equivalent to 660 feet, 220 yards, 40 rods, 10 chains or approximately 201 metres. It is now mostly confined to use in hors ...

s on the turf and offers a purse of $50,000. The Half Moon is named for a small bay on the coast below

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

famous for its

pumpkins A pumpkin is a vernacular term for mature winter squash of species and varieties in the genus ''Cucurbita'' that has culinary and cultural significance but no agreed upon botanical or scientific meaning. The term ''pumpkin'' is sometimes use ...

, as well as a recently discovered monster surf wave called the "Maverick".

Past winners

* 2006 - Private Banking * 2005 - Strong Faith * 2004 - (Not run due to cutbacks?) * 2003 - Blue Blood Boot * 2002 - World Light * 2001 - * 2000 - Heritage of Hall * 1999 - Wind Tunnel * 1998 - Highland Gold (raced at

Bay Meadows Bay Meadows was a horse racing Race track, track in San Mateo, California from 1934 until 2008, in the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States of America, United States. History Built on the site of an old airfield, Bay Meadows Racecourse w ...

)

External links

Golden Gate Fields website
Horse races in California Ungraded stakes races in the United States Sports in the San Francisco Bay Area Turf races in the United States Golden Gate Fields