A Devil of a Finish in the Oaks

Heavy favorite Gamine (Into Mischief)'s stiffest competition in Friday's GI Kentucky Oaks figured to come from a daughter of Daredevil–just not 15-1 Shedaresthedevil, who led home a one-two for her exported stallion over second choice Swiss Skydiver. The Flurry Racing Stables LLC, Qatar Racing Limited and Big Aut Farms representative covered the nine furlongs at Churchill Downs in an Oaks record of 1:48.28 (Bird Town, 2003, 1:48.64). The winning margin was 1 1/2 lengths, with the same margin back to 7-10 Gamine in third. Trainer Brad Cox and rider Florent Geroux were teaming up for their second Oaks in three years, having won in 2018 with Monomoy Girl (Tapizar), who one race earlier scored her 12th victory from 14 tries in the GI La Troienne S.

The eventual top three finishers all let the blocks quickly, with Shedaresthedevil breaking inward before latching on to Gamine's right flank into the first turn. Swiss Skydiver, the GI Alabama S. romper, tucked in to draft in third along the fence. Shedaresadevil traveled strongly in the bridle chasing splits of :23.39 and :47.92, and was well out in the track as Gamine stayed off the fence, leaving room for Swiss Skydiver to squeeze through if she could or wanted to. Tyler Gaffalione on Swiss Skydiver just held his spot as John Velazquez and Gamine closed the hole, and Shedaresthedevil soon ranged up to take a run at the leader. Gamine seemed to respond to the challenge at first, and clung to a narrow advantage despite traveling on her incorrect lead, but the Daredevil duo continued to bear down on her and Shedaresthedevil overtook her with a furlong to race before stiff-arming Swiss Skydiver to the finish.

“She had a great trip,” said Geroux, who booted home five winners on the card, including three for Cox, and concluded a clean sweep of the late pick three aboard Diamond Oops (Lookin At Lucky) in the GII Twin Spires Turf Sprint S. one race later. “She broke very sharp and I was able to stalk Gamine all the way. That was the plan, but sometimes plans don't always work out. Perfect plan today. The only question was whether or not I was going to be able to run her down. My filly ran an amazing race. It's been an amazing day.”

Friday, Churchill Downs
LONGINES KENTUCKY OAKS-GI, $1,250,000, Churchill Downs, 9-4, 3yo, f, 1 1/8m, 1:48.28, ft.
1–SHEDARESTHEDEVIL, 121, f, 3, by Daredevil
                1st Dam: Starship Warpspeed, by Congrats
                2nd Dam: Andria's Forest, by Forestry
                3rd Dam: Andriana B., by Far North
   1ST GRADE I WIN. ($100,000 Wlg '17 KEENOV; $20,000 RNA
Ylg '18 KEESEP; $280,000 2yo '19 KEENOV). O-Flurry Racing
Stables LLC, Qatar Racing Limited & Big Aut Farms; B-WinStar
Farm, LLC (KY); T-Brad H. Cox; J-Florent Geroux. $744,000.
Lifetime Record: 10-5-2-2, $1,245,768. *1/2 to Mojovation
(Quality Road), GSP, $190,088. Werk Nick Rating: B. Click for
   eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Swiss Skydiver, 121, f, 3, by Daredevil
                1st Dam: Expo Gold, by Johannesburg
                2nd Dam: Clouds of Gold, by Strike the Gold
                3rd Dam: Cloudy Colors, by Personal Flag
($35,000 Ylg '18 KEESEP). O-Peter J. Callahan; B-WinStar Farm,
LLC (KY); T-Kenneth G. McPeek. $240,000.
3–Gamine, 121, f, 3, by Into Mischief
                1st Dam: Peggy Jane, by Kafwain
                2nd Dam: Seattle Splash, by Chief Seattle
                3rd Dam: Grand Splash, by Bucksplasher
'TDN Rising Star' ($220,000 Ylg '18 KEESEP; $1,800,000 2yo '19
EASMAY). O-Michael Lund Petersen; B-Grace Thoroughbred
Holdings LLC (KY); T-Bob Baffert. $120,000.
Margins: 1HF, 1HF, 5 3/4. Odds: 15.10, 2.50, 0.70.
Also Ran: Speech, Tempers Rising, Hopeful Growth, Bayerness, Donna Veloce, Dream Marie. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.

Shedaresthedevil debuted a decisive winner last June under the Twin Spires for Norm Casse and the Greathouse family's Glencrest Farm, and was subsequently bought into by Sheikh Fahad Al Thani's Qatar Racing and sent to Simon Callaghan in California. She was third in the GII Sorrento S. that August and fourth in the Juvenile Fillies Turf S. at Del Mar in early September before cutting back and returning to the main track to be a second in Santa Anita's Anoakia S. Oct. 13. Offered as a supplemental entry during the horses of racing age portion of last year's Keeneland November sale, she was the second topper of session 7 at $280,000, selling to Hot Springs, AR native Staton Flurry, whose family owns the parking lots across from Oaklawn Park.

With Flurry Racing Stables and Qatar Racing listed as owners, Shedaresthedevil returned as a member of the Brad Cox barn, and finished a close second to her new stablemate Bonny South (Munnings) in an Oaklawn optional claimer Feb. 15. Bonny South took the GII Fair Grounds Oaks next out, was second in the Alabama behind Swiss Skydiver and had been under consideration for the Oaks until recently.

Shedaresthedevil, meanwhile, annexed the Mar. 7 GIII Honeybee S. before a distant third behind Swiss Skydiver and talented Venetian Harbor (Munnings) in the GIII Fantasy S. May 1. She again hinted at her affinity for the Churchill strip with a six-length score in optional claiming company here June 5, and aired by five lengths in the GIII Indiana Oaks July 8 for a career-best 86 Beyer Speed Figure. That number did not match up particularly well on paper with the 110 Gamine had earned for her GI Acorn S. drubbing or the 102 Swiss Skydiver received for the Alabama.

“This is why you wake up every morning to get to win races like this,” said Cox, who himself had a three-win day at Churchill that also included the unveiling of new 'TDN Rising Star' Travel Column (Frosted). “This filly has been really impressive coming into the race and when she breezed with Monomoy Girl a couple weeks ago (5f, 1:00.20, 5/46 Aug. 15), we knew how well she was training. These were some tough fillies in the Oaks this year with Swiss Skydiver and Gamine. We are so thrilled to win a race like the Oaks, again, in our backyard. This has been a phenomenal day with Monomoy Girl winning the La Troienne then winning the Oaks with Shedaresthedevil. These are the days you dream of.”

Flurry admitted in the post-race press conference that he was somewhat surprised by the result, but expected his filly to run well: “Everybody that asked, 'Hey, how do you think you're going to run? Are you going to win?' I told everybody, if we run anything better than fourth, it's a bonus. If we run worse than fourth, it's a disappointment. So it's a bonus.

“We're tickled to death. Never dreamed six months ago we would be sitting here. We knew we had a nice filly after a couple of Oaklawn races. But to come in and beat Swiss Skydiver, who crushed us in the Fantasy at Oaklawn; and Gamine, who is phenomenal, maybe one of the best fillies we've seen in a long, long, long time–to come in and beat both of those, I don't think I would have dreamed it.

“Like I said, anything better than fourth was a victory for us, just because we knew what we were running against. But at the same time, we knew we had a fresher horse coming in just because we have kind of dodged the tougher races.

“We went with the allowance race two races back and won it by double digits. And went into the Indiana Oaks and went in by six or seven. That was kind of the plan to come in with a fresher horse instead of knocking heads with the big ones early on.”

As for the beaten favorite, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert said: “She just didn't have it. Turning for home, she was in a good spot and she was late switching leads and she never does that. I don't know if she just got tired or whatever. But down the backside he couldn't have been any better, he was in the perfect spot. She just didn't have it there.”

Conditioner Kenny McPeek said of Swiss Skydiver: “She ran super. That other filly has been training extremely well. I've been watching her. Tyler rode her good. That's horse racing. There's no guarantees. She's been training super. I actually wasn't as worried about Gamine as I was about another filly running a bang-up race. That's what happened.”

Pedigree Notes:

Shedaresthedevil follows in Swiss Skydiver's hoofsteps as the second highest-level winner for her sire. They are his only two graded winners. Daredevil, a brilliant 2-year-old who took the 2014 GI Champagne S. with a 107 Beyer in the slop before taking up stud duties at WinStar Farm, was sold to the Turkish Jockey Club ahead of the 2020 breeding season.

Shedaresthedevil is one of three graded/group winners out of mares by Congrats and becomes his first Grade I winner as a broodmare sire. The winner's dam was one-for-eight on the track, breaking her maiden by almost 27 lengths in a rained-off Belmont $40,000 maiden claimer in 2011. Her 2-year-old filly by Outwork was a $150,000 FTKJUL yearling but has no published breezes since May 31. Starship Warpspeed produced a Speightster filly last year and an Exaggerator filly this March. She was bred back to Uncle Mo.