Gamine impresses in Great Lady M. Stakes
On paper, Monday’s $200,000 Grade II Great Lady M. Stakes on closing day of Los Alamitos’ Summer Thoroughbred Festival looked like a mismatch of epic proportions. Turns out it was just that.
Gamine, whose resume towered far above any of the other four fillies and mares entered in the 6 1/2-furlong event, sped to a 10-length victory under Hall of Fame rider John Velazquez for her eighth victory in nine starts, including four Grade I triumphs.
Velazquez, a fixture on the East Coast who turns 50 in November, made his Los Alamitos debut and has ridden Gamine in all six of her stakes victories.
The 4-year-old Into Mischief filly, trained by Bob Baffert and sent postward as the 1-5 favorite, was never headed while carving out swift fractions of 21.61, 44.32 and 1:08.40 en route to a final clocking of 1:14.98 while geared down in the stretch.
It was without question one of the most impressive performances since daytime thoroughbred racing returned to Los Alamitos in 2014.
“I know she’s quick and the other horse (thirdplace finisher Road Rager) showed speed,” said Velazquez, who’s ridden Gamine in seven of her nine starts. “I knew the horse to beat (3-1 second choice Edgeway) was inside of me.
“She relaxed and I let her do her thing around the turn and that was it from there.”
The victory was Baffert’s sixth in the Great Lady M., including three of the past four runnings. He won back-to-back editions of the race with Marley’s Freedom in 2018-19.
Gamine earned Eclipse Award honors last year for top female sprinter after winning four Grade I races at four different tracks — Churchill Downs, Keeneland, Belmont Park and Saratoga. Overall, she’s won her eight races by a combined 44 3/4 lengths, including the Acorn Stakes at Belmont by a record 18 3/4 lengths last June.
“Nice to see a lot of people come to the paddock to get a good look at her,” Baffert said. “That’s what great horses do (attract crowds). When she runs I get nervous and I’m more relieved after the race.”
Bella Vita, a 22-1 longshot ridden by the seven-day meet’s leading jockey, Juan Hernandez, held second by a neck over another outsider, 45-1 shot Road Rager with apprentice Jessica Pyfer aboard. Edgeway and
Baffert’s second entry, Qahira, completed the order of finish in a field reduced to five by three scratches.
Gamine has raced around two turns only twice in her career — a victory by a neck at Oaklawn Park in an optional claimer and a third-place finish in the 2020 Kentucky Oaks, a race in which her owners forfeited the purse because of a drug positive.
Baffert briefly toyed with the idea of running Gamine in last year’s Kentucky Derby, but eventually opted against the idea because he felt she was too lightly raced. He wanted to get more seasoning into her, telling the Southern California News Group last July, “I still think she needs more work. We gotta get her to relax a little bit more.”
But she’s extremely talented, and Baffert said in the winner’s circle Monday that he might eventually try her around two turns again.
“She might be able to stretch out,” he said. “She’s getting older and more mature. That’s one option I’ve been thinking about, but I don’t know what we’ll do next. I want to see how she comes out of this and I’ll let her tell me.”
Gamine raised her career earnings to $1,406,500 with the victory.