Kookie Gal First Stakes Winner for Boisterous
Image:
Description:
Photo: Benoit Photo
Kookie Gal wins the Soviet Problem Stakes at Los Alamitos Race Course
Wachtel Stable & Gary Barber's homebred Kookie Gal became the first stakes winner for grade 1 winner Boisterous when she stepped to the dirt Dec. 15 and won the $100,000 Soviet Problem Stakes at Los Alamitos Race Course.
Though Kookie Gal's sire notched his top-level victory in the 2013 Man o' War Stakes (G1T), trainer Peter Miller took a shot sending the 2-year-old filly to the main track after two turf starts, and he also ran her without blinkers—a decision jockey Flavien Prat said was the winning move.
"Peter Miller made the right decision to take the blinkers off today," Prat remarked. "She relaxed perfectly and then gave me a real good kick in the stretch.''
Kookie Gal, out of the Comic Strip mare Kukaluka, closed from fourth with a three-wide bid and drew off to win by four lengths over Hotitude. Her final time for the mile test was 1:37.18.
"It set up like we thought it would," assistant trainer Ruben Alvarado said. "We knew our other filly (third-place finisher Creative Instinct) would be up near the lead, and we thought (Kookie Gal) would be a few lengths behind. … She was training well at Del Mar, so we decided to try her on dirt and that maybe we would get lucky.''
Boisterous stands at Tommy Town Thoroughbreds in California, where his 2019 fee is advertised as $5,000.