Gamine Brings Win Streak into BC F&M Sprint Defense

Already a Breeders' Cup and Eclipse Award winner, Gamine  bids for something else Nov. 6 at Del Mar: an unbeaten season.

The high-achieving 4-year-old Into Mischief   filly, whose lone defeat in 10 career starts came last year in the Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1), looks to improve to 5-for-5 in 2021 when she faces Bella Sofia , Ce Ce , and three others in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1). She won the race last year when it was at Keeneland.

Only Groupie Doll  (2012-13) has repeated in the Filly & Mare Sprint since the race's creation in 2007. She was not unbeaten either year.

Gamine, North America's reigning champion female sprinter, is twice a winner in grade 1 company in 2021. She captured the Derby City Distaff Stakes presented by Kendall-Jackson Winery (G1) on Derby Day, May 1, at Churchill Downs, and added the Aug. 28 Ketel One Ballerina Handicap (G1) in her most recent start at Saratoga Race Course.

In those two grade 1 victories, and also the Las Flores Stakes (G3) to begin the year, she had things her own way on the lead. A frontrunner, she likely didn't need the advantage of a :23.20 first split in the Ballerina but got it and spurted away for a 1 3/4-length victory.

Behind her in the Ballerina were two foes that return in the Filly & Mare Sprint—third-place Ce Ce, and fifth-place Estillo Talentoso. The duo received weight breaks under the previous race's handicap conditions and couldn't beat her. Saturday, all those aged 4 and up all carry 124 pounds.

Along with the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, the seven-furlong Filly & Mare Sprint has the shortest field of 14 Breeders' Cup races, with just six entered and with Gamine installed as the 3-5 morning-line favorite. She has been favored in every start.

Bob Baffert, a 17-time Breeders' Cup winner, trains Gamine for owner Michael Lund Petersen, who, via agent Donato Lanni, bought the Grace Thoroughbred Holdings-bred filly for $1.8 million from Bobby Dodd's consignment at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale.

Baffert trainees have undergone expanded screening and testing in advance of the Breeders' Cup as a condition from Breeders' Cup officials for the trainer's participation. This action followed Medina Spirit  testing positive for betamethasone after crossing the wire first in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) at Churchill Downs May 1, the trainer's fifth positive test in a year.

Gamine was responsible for two of those positives.

John Velazquez, an 18-time Breeders Cup winner, returns aboard Gamine, who is 8-for-8 around one turn.

One of two supplements to the Filly & Mare Sprint at a cost of $100,000 apiece, Bella Sofia may have the speed and class to keep pace with Gamine. She, too, has lost just a single race, going 4-1-0 in five starts. After losing her stakes debut in the Jersey Girl Stakes June 6, she has won three in a row, including the Longines Test Stakes (G1) and Gallant Bloom Handicap (G2).

"It's a tough race," said trainer Rudy Rodriguez of the Filly & Mare Sprint. "It should be tough. It's the Breeders' Cup."

She is the fourth Breeders' Cup starter for Rodriguez, following Belle Gallantey , who finished ninth in the 2014 Distaff, and Jamyson' n Ginger (fifth) and Colorful Charades  (12th) in the 2016 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1).

A $20,000 purchase by bloodstock agents Nick Sallusto and Hanzly Albina, she races for owners Michael Imperio, Medallion Racing, Sofia Soares, Vincent Scuderi, and Parkland Thoroughbreds. They made her a pricey horse-of-racing-age nomination to compete.

"The owners were happy to put the money up," Rodriguez said.

With the Awesome Patriot  filly based in New York throughout her career and unaccustomed to traveling, Rodriguez flew her to California two weeks before the race to acclimate and breeze once at Del Mar. The race's lone 3-year-old, she carries 122 pounds, two less than her older rivals. Luis Saez will ride.

Estillo Talentoso (Maclean's Music  ), a close third in the Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes (G2) at Keeneland is the other supplement. Medallion Racing and Parkland Thoroughbreds are also part-owners of this filly, this time with Barry Fowler, Little Red Feather Racing, and BlackRidge Stables.

The Juan Arriagada trainee won the Bed o' Roses Stakes (G3) this summer at Saratoga and has contended in grade 2s and grade 1s

Bo Hirsch's dual grade 1 winner Ce Ce (Elusive Quality ), beaten by Gamine in both the Derby City Distaff and Ballerina, has scored thrice this year. She took the Chillingworth Stakes (G3) in her final Breeders' Cup tuneup after wins in the Princess Rooney Invitational Stakes (G2) and an allowance optional claimer earlier in the year. She defeated a poor-starting Estillo Talentoso in the Princess Rooney this summer at Gulfstream Park.

Primarily a two-turn filly last year, trainer Michael McCarthy has concentrated her in long sprints for much of 2021.

"I just felt that out in California here since she's found some of these deeper racetracks tiring and demanding... cutting back to one turn seems to be a bit easier on her," McCarthy said.

Rounding out the field are graded stakes-winning Californians Edgeway  and Proud Emma .

OFFICIAL: Post Positions for the $1 Million #BreedersCup Filly & Mare Sprint at @DelMarRacing. #BC21

ℹ️: https://t.co/Ssy2vUnx8E #BC21 pic.twitter.com/eqRGtVwISi

— Breeders' Cup (@BreedersCup) November 1, 2021

Entries: Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (G1)

Del Mar, Saturday, November 06, 2021, Race 4

• Grade I
• 7f
• Dirt
• $1,000,000
• 3 yo's & up Fillies and Mares
• 12:05 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Proud Emma (KY)	Flavien Prat	124	Peter Miller	20/1
2	2Estilo Talentoso (KY)	Jose L. Ortiz	124	Juan Arriagada	12/1
3	3Edgeway (KY)	Joel Rosario	124	John W. Sadler	12/1
4	4Ce Ce (KY)	Victor Espinoza	124	Michael W. McCarthy	4/1
5	5Gamine (KY)	John R. Velazquez	124	Bob Baffert	3/5
6	6Bella Sofia (KY)	Luis Saez	122	Rudy R. Rodriguez	5/2