KY Downs Ladies Sprint Not Too Short for Got Stormy
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Photo: Coady Photography
Got Stormy wins the Kentucky Downs Ladies Sprint Stakes
When rain started failing at Kentucky Downs, it made trainer Mark Casse nervous, to say the least.
"I wasn't worried a little bit," Casse said about a storm that left the turf course in soft condition. "I was worried a lot."
Yet not even Mother Nature could faze Got Stormy on a soggy Sept. 12 afternoon as the 5-year-old Get Stormy mare made a highly successful turf sprint debut when she surged to a 3 1/4-length victory under jockey Tyler Gaffalione in the 6 1/2-furlong $498,000 Kentucky Downs Ladies Sprint Stakes (G3T).
The race was the shortest for Gary Barber's grade 1-winning mare since her Dec. 2, 2017 debut, when she was third going at 7 1/2 furlongs. Now Casse believes the runner-up in last year's TVG Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T) may have found a new niche that will most likely take her to the Nov. 7 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (G1T) at Keeneland.
"I don't think I'll run her in the Mile," Casse said. "At Keeneland in the fall the turf is usually soft and I don't think she'll get a mile over it. I asked Tyler after the race 'What do you think about the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint?' and he said, 'I love it and she'll love it.' It's something Gary and I will have to discuss but I'd say that's where we're heading, especially at Keeneland. The course plays a little longer than 5 1/2 furlongs there and I think she'll love it."
As much as the daughter of the Malabar Gold mare Super Phoebe prefers hard turf, Casse says Got Stormy's issue with soft ground is that she cannot run as far over it. That's why he says he would have scratched Got Stormy if Saturday's race was at a mile and why a sprint at the Breeders' Cup should fit her.
"She handles the soft turf," Casse said. "It just decreases how far she can run. Today she was amazing in a sprint. Tyler said she could have been on the lead."
The victory was the first in six 2020 starts for Got Stormy, and gave her nine wins in 24 races and pushed her earnings to over $1.9 million. She is the lone stakes winner from Super Phoebe's seven foals to race.
A yearling out of Super Phoebe by Mohaymen , who was bought by Redly Bloodstock for $145,000 from the Pope McLean consignment at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Mixed Sale, is scheduled to sell as Hip 1195 from the Paramount Sales, Agent LXVIII, consignment at the upcoming Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
Longshots Surrender Now and Bohemian Bourbon set the pace in the Ladies Sprint, going a half-mile in :46.27. Gaffalione was fifth with the 9-5 favorite at that point, then kicked Got Stormy into top gear from the three path in the stretch to take a half-length lead at the eighth pole and draw clear while Winning Envelope rallied from last in the field of 12 to be second.
Got Stormy ($5.80) covered the 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:15.41.
Lothenbach Stables' Winning Envelope, a 4-year-old More Than Ready filly trained by Chris Block, was second by a half-length over G. Chris Coleman and Brad E. King's Into Mystic, a 4-year-old Into Mischief filly trained by Brendan Walsh.
Intuicao, Jakarta and Kimari were scratched.
As a footnote to Saturday's win, aside from giving her a positive experience over soft turf, it also added to Get Stormy's lengthy travel log as Kentucky Downs became the 12th track she has visited.
"In the paddock, she was looking around as if she was saying, 'Where do you have me now?' We've taken her all over," Casse said.