Already boasting two out of the three highest Beyer Speed Figures on the year for all 3-year-olds, 'TDN Rising Star' Gamine (Into Mischief) produced another spectacular performance, airing by 6 1/4 lengths in track-record time in Saturday's GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Keeneland.
Content to stalk the blazing speed of last year's GI Kentucky Oaks heroine Serengeti Empress (Alternation) through early fractions of :21.77 and :44.27, the even-money choice put the screws to the frontrunner turning for home. Moving easily from there beneath Hall of Famer John Velazquez, this summer's jaw-dropping GI Longines Acorn S. (110 Beyer) and GI Longines Test S. (108 Beyer) heroine drew off to a daylight win over Serengeti Empress, who just lasted by a nose for second. Gamine is the third straight 3-year-old to win the Filly and Mare Sprint.
Bell's the One (Majesticperfection), a dramatic nose winner over Serengeti Empress in the GI Derby City Distaff S., rounded out the trifecta.
The final time of 1:20.20 established a new track record for seven furlongs.
Gamine's win, however, didn't come without controversy.
The $1.8-million Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-old sale topper was disqualified from first after testing positive for lidocaine in an optional claiming win at Oaklawn May 2 and was also named by The New York Times as a class C medication positive after tiring to third as the 3-5 favorite in the GI Kentucky Oaks last time Sept. 4.
Hall of Famer Bob Baffert was emotional after securing his 16th Breeders' Cup trophy with Gamine on the turnback in distance.
“That's the baddest bitch in the land right there!,” Baffert said. “I knew [Serengeti Empress] was going to go and I told Johnny if you get separation to get to the outside. She is doing as well as she did when she won the Acorn. She is just brilliant. She is the fastest filly going one turn I've ever trained. I wanted it bad for her. What she's gone through. She deserved it. Of all my races, this meant the most to me. I felt so bad for the filly. But [owner] Michael Lund Petersen, he's behind me. I explained to him the nonsense of contamination stuff that was going on. It's a distraction. But today I just want to show the world it was, today was her day.”
Baffert continued, “I think anybody that knows racing, I mean, the headlines don't sound well, but when you get to the facts, they were contamination, one was an overage, which we're trying to be extra careful, but now the testing has become so
sensitive that we even have to be more careful. I always thought I ran a tight ship, I have to run a tighter ship.”
Will we see Gamine race again this year?
“There's a race at Santa Anita, if I wanted to run her–[the GI] La Brea,” Baffert said. “But I don't know, we might give her a break. And like I said, I would like to venture out and run her beyond seven-eighths, a mile. And I really think, as she gets older, she's going to mentally be able to handle something like that. I think as she gets older, she's going to be even better and we're just going to have fun with her.”
Owner Michael Lund Petersen's beige-and-green silks have also been carried by GI Metropolitan H. hero Mor Spirit (Eskendereya) as well as GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S. winner Mucho Gusto (Mucho Macho Man).
Petersen co-founded Pandora USA in 2002 in the basement of his home in Columbia, Maryland. It has expanded into a massive charmbracelet success.
“No, not only does it stand out, but it's the first time I ever brought my whole family and we won a race,” Petersen said of the win. “I guess that's why I got so emotional. Not only winning the Breeders' Cup, but just having all of us here was a great, great experience.”
Pedigree Notes:
Into Mischief went into Breeders' Cup Saturday as the leading sire in North America and showed no sign of relinquishing that title when he kicked off the day with Gamine's win, his second consecutive victory in the Filly & Mare Sprint after Covfefe's last year. It added to Into Mischief tally of two previous Breeders' Cup wins as a sire when Goldencents won back-to-back GI Dirt Miles in 2013-14. Into Mischief began the 2020 Breeders' Cup weekend with 33 graded winners, 81 black-type winners, and Dayoutoftheoffice's second in Friday's GI Juvenile Fillies. His 27 stakes winners this year is tops in North America. Gamine's broodmare sire, the lesser-known Kafwain, was a multiple graded winner at two who was second in the 2002 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile. He now stands in California and has eight black-type winners out of his daughters. Much has been made of Gamine's $1.8-million pricetag as a Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-old, and Peggy Jane also had the now-juvenile Splashtown (Speightstown) sell last year as a Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October yearling for $300,000. Waiting in the wings are Peggy Jane's yearling filly by Ghostzapper and weanling colt by Kantharos. She was bred back to Into Mischief for next term.
Saturday, Keeneland
BREEDERS' CUP FILLY AND MARE SPRINT-GI, $900,000, Keeneland, 11-7, 3yo/up, f/m, 7f, 1:20.20, ft.
1–GAMINE, 122, f, 3, by Into Mischief
1st Dam: Peggy Jane, by Kafwain
2nd Dam: Seattle Splash, by Chief Seattle
3rd Dam: Grand Splash, by Bucksplasher
($220,000 Ylg '18 KEESEP; $1,800,000 2yo '19 EASMAY).
O-Michael Lund Petersen; B-Grace Thoroughbred Holdings LLC
(KY); T-Bob Baffert; J-John R. Velazquez. $520,000. Lifetime
Record: 6-4-0-1, $1,003,000. Werk Nick Rating: A++. Click for
the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. 'TDN Rising Star'
2–Serengeti Empress, 124, f, 4, by Alternation
1st Dam: Havisham, by Bernardini
2nd Dam: Love Dancing (Arg), by Salt Lake
3rd Dam: Le Midi (Arg), by Fitzcarraldo (Arg)
($25,000 Wlg '16 KEENOV; $70,000 Ylg '17 KEESEP). O-Joel
Politi; B-Tri Eques Bloodstock, LLC (KY); T-Thomas M. Amoss.
$170,000.
3–Bell's the One, 124, f, 4, by Majesticperfection
1st Dam: Street Mate, by Street Cry (Ire)
2nd Dam: Day Mate, by Dayjur
3rd Dam: Possible Mate, by King's Bishop
($155,000 Ylg '17 FTKJUL). O-Lothenbach Stables, Inc. (Bob
Lothenbach); B-Bret Jones (KY); T-Neil L. Pessin. $90,000.
Margins: 6 1/4, NO, HF. Odds: 1.10, 3.30, 6.20.
Also Ran: Sconsin, Come Dancing, Speech, Sally's Curlin, Venetian Harbor. Scratched: Inthemidstofbiz. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
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