Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
KENTUCKY OAKS 146
GAMINE LOOMS A SHORT PRICE VS. TOUGH FOE,
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A lot can change in six months – seasons, young Thoroughbreds, the world. In the first week of March, when the march toward the early May Kentucky Oaks was beginning to heat up, Swiss Skydiver had yet to win a stakes race. Gamine had yet to start.
But then, Swiss Skydiver broke through. And then, Gamine broke stopwatches. And now, six months later, something’s gotta give. The acknowledged leaders of this division, the brilliant Gamine and the rock-solid Swiss Skydiver, meet Friday in the 146th running of the Grade 1, $1.25 million Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs.
“You really need to settle it on the racetrack,” said Ken McPeek, who trains Swiss Skydiver. “I think if Bob’s filly or my filly wins the Oaks, I think it says, ‘This is your champion 3-year-old filly.’ ”
Gamine, trained by Bob Baffert, was made the evenmoney favorite on Mike Battaglia’s morning line for the Oaks, which, like the Kentucky Derby, was postponed from the first weekend in May to the first weekend in September by the global coronavirus pandemic. The races will be run without fans.
Swiss Skydiver was installed as the second choice at 8-5. Behind them comes Speech at 5-1. No other filly in the field of nine is less than 15-1. Still, McPeek says nothing is guaranteed.
“It’s a tough race to win – I learned that with Take Charge Lady,” he said, referencing his Grade 1 winner who was second as the favorite in the 2002 Oaks as Farda Amiga sprang a $42 upset. “We got upset by Farda Amiga, who ran the race of her life. So there are no guarantees.”
Since the advent of the modern Eclipse Awards in 1971, 15 Oaks winners have been named divisional champions.
Two of those are Silverbulletday (1999) and Abel Tasman (2017), who account for two of Baffert’s three Oaks victories. The Hall of Fame trainer is back with Michael Lund Petersen’s seven-figure juvenile purchase Gamine. The daughter of leading sire Into Mischief has crossed the line first in all four of her starts. The smallest margin came in her only start around two turns, which later became the only blemish on her record. Gamine finished a neck ahead of Speech in a 1 1/16-mile allowance race at Oaklawn. However, she was later disqualified after a post-race test showed excessive amounts of the legal medication lidocaine.
Gamine then scored back-toback runaway wins in one-turn Grade 1 races in New York. She won the Acorn Stakes by 18 3/4 lengths, earning a 110 Beyer Speed Figure while sizzling the mile in a stakes-record 1:32.55. She then won the Aug. 8 Test Stakes at Saratoga by seven lengths, running seven furlongs in 1:20.83 to tie the stakes mark.
Gamine drew a comfortable post 5 in the Oaks under John Velazquez, who partnered with her in both New York outings. She is expected to show the way for as far as she can carry them.
“The whole key for her is to get away from there, and the pace,” Baffert said. “I’m sure they’re going to go after her early.
“She does it so easy. She has brilliance,” Baffert added. “It’s hard to keep up with a horse like that when they’re doing it so easy.”
Prompting Gamine, and not eager to let her get away with easy fractions, may be Swiss Skydiver, who drew the rail, along with Speech, Shedaresthedevil, and Donna Veloce, all of whom have won races this year running on or near the lead. The fresh Donna Veloce, in particular, could be keen to go, having not raced since taking the Grade 3 Santa Ysabel in March.
The 1 1/8 miles is not a problem for Swiss Skydiver, who has won four of her last five starts, all in graded stakes around two turns. Her only loss in that span came when she ran second to Art Collector in the Grade 2 Blue Grass Stakes. Peter Callahan’s daughter of Daredevil easily bested members of her own division in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks, Grade 3 Fantasy Stakes, Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks, and finally, the Grade 1 Alabama Stakes on Aug. 15. In that 1 1/4-mile race at Saratoga, she earned a career-best 102 Beyer.
Tyler Gaffalione was reunited with Swiss Skydiver for the Alabama and retains the mount Friday. He had ridden the filly to her debut win and an allowance runner-up effort last November at Churchill.
Speech, following her close finish to Gamine at Oaklawn, finished second to Swiss Skydiver at Santa Anita. She had the spotlight to herself in the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes in July at Keeneland, cruising by three lengths in a stakesrecord 1:41.26. She earned a career-best Beyer of 101 under Javier Castellano and is the only other member of this field to break the triple-digit threshold.
Trainer Michael McCarthy likes what he has seen from Speech in energetic training sessions in Louisville.
“She’s a very spirited horse and she got over the track well,” McCarthy said. “She always keeps herself plenty fit.”
She darest he devil, winner of the Grade 3 Honeybee Stakes and Grade 3 Indiana Oaks for Brad Cox, has never missed the board on dirt, and has won both her starts at Churchill. In her last two outings, she won a Churchill allowance and the Indiana Oaks by a combined 11 lengths under Florent Geroux, who retains the mount.
Hopeful Growth, winner of the Grade 3 Monmouth Oaks, and Bayerness, Dream Marie, and Tempers Rising, all graded stakes-placed this year, complete the field.
The Oaks is the 12th race on Friday’s 13-race card, which also includes the Grade 1, $500,000 La Troienne Stakes for fillies and mares, in which champion Monomoy Girl, the 2018 Oaks and Breeders’ Cup
Distaff winner at Churchill, faces Grade 1 winners Vexatious and She’s a Julie in one of several compelling events on the card.
Multiple Grade 1 winner McKinzie is the defending winner of the Grade 2, $400,000 Alysheba Stakes for older horses, and faces graded stakes winners By My Standards, Owendale, Mr Freeze, Silver Dust, and Hence. Rounding out the Friday stakes are three more Grade 2 stakes – the $300,000 Edgewood, led by Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies
Turf winner Sharing; the $300,000 Eight Belles for sprint fillies; and the $250,000 Twin Spires Turf Sprint.
First post is 11 a.m. Eastern, with the Oaks set for 5:45 p.m. The filly classic will be aired during a broadcast on NBCSN that begins at 3 p.m.
Rain is expected in the area on Wednesday and Thursday, but the forecast calls for partly sunny skies and temperatures in the low 80s on Friday in Louisville.