Gamine, Gamine, Gamine. A thousand times, Gamine. That’s the name everyone will be saying and hearing as the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint draws closer. As a 6 1/4-length winner of this race last fall at Keeneland with a 110 Beyer Speed Figure and the reigning leader atop the filly-mare sprint division since then, there’s little doubt Gamine is the one to beat in the seven-furlong Filly and Mare Sprint. She is the even-money favorite on the early Daily Racing Form line composed by Brad Free among known prospects for the Nov. 6 race at Del Mar. Trained by Bob Baffert for Michael Lund Petersen, Gamine has won nine of 10 starts, with the lone defeat coming in the 2020 Kentucky Oaks, her only career attempt beyond a mile. The 4-year-old Into Mischief filly has led throughout in winning all four starts this year, including victories in the Grade 1 Derby City Distaff and her most recent start, the Grade 1 Ballerina on Aug. 28 at Saratoga with a 104 Beyer. Baffert, whose 17 all-time wins in the Breeders’ Cup is second behind only the 20 compiled by fellow Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas, has chosen once again to simply train Gamine up to the Filly and Mare Sprint at his Santa Anita base. The gap between races is 10 weeks, essentially the same blueprint Baffert used last year between an early-September Oaks and the Breeders’ Cup. :: BREEDERS’ CUP 2021: See DRF’s special section with top contenders, odds, comments, news, and more for each division One other California-based filly, Edgeway, also will train up to the race for John Sadler; otherwise, the bulk of starters will exit four key divisional races. Two of those preps have already been run – the Sept. 18 Open Mind at Churchill Downs, where Sconsin and Bell’s the One stamped their BC tickets as the respective one-two finishers, and the Gallant Bloom last weekend at Belmont Park, where the 3-year-old Bella Sofia followed up a romp in the Aug. 7 Test with a second straight triple-digit Beyer. The remaining preps are the 6 1/2-furlong Chillingworth on Sunday at Santa Anita and the six-furlong Thoroughbred Club of America, a Win and You’re In, on Oct. 9 at Keeneland. The case of Bella Sofia, the 4-1 second choice on the opening DRF line, epitomizes the gravity of Gamine in this division. Before the 6 1/2-furlong Gallant Bloom, trainer Rudy Rodriguez expressed serious doubt about running back in the Breeders’ Cup. “Not too sure about the Breeders’ Cup because we’ve got to run against Gamine,” Rodriguez said. “That horse will be 1-5 regardless who’s in the race.” But minutes after Bella Sofia sped to a 3 1/2-length triumph as a 2-5 favorite, earning a 102 Beyer, Nick Sallusto, the racing manager for Michael Imperio, the majority owner of Bella Sofia, said, “The Breeders’ Cup is definitely going to take strong consideration. There’s no reason not to consider it after today. Michael Imperio is the majority owner and is definitely interested in running.” “There’s one horse in the division that everybody is aware of,” Sallusto added. “My opinion has always been you never run away from one horse.” This will be the 15th running of the Filly and Mare Sprint, first run in 2007 at Monmouth Park in the first year the Breeders’ Cup became a two-day event.