Arinata's surprising turf win earns her a try in Joseph A. Gimma Stakes
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OZONE PARK, N.Y. – A decade ago, trainer Linda Rice and owner Sheila Rosenblum campaigned La Verdad to the female sprint championship. Now, the trainer-owner combination are campaigning Arinata, a granddaughter of La Verdad, who is trying to make her mark on a different surface.
Despite not having a turf pedigree, Arinata was a visually impressive debut winner of a 5 1/2-furlong turf race by 1 1/2 lengths in handy fashion on Sept. 1, closing day of the Saratoga meet.
Friday, Arinata will make the often difficult jump of going from a maiden race to a stakes when she faces eight fellow New York-bred juvenile fillies in the $150,000 Joseph A. Gimma Stakes at Aqueduct. Run as a seven-furlong dirt race for the last 29 years, the Gimma was changed to a six-furlong turf race this year.
Arinata is a daughter of Practical Joke out of the Curlin mare Curlin’s Truth, a pedigree that certainly doesn’t scream turf. However, Practical Joke is the sire of Corsia Veloce, who won last weekend’s Grade 1 Natalma Stakes on turf at Woodbine.
Rice said her gut told her that Arinata “would like it despite her pedigree, and she was ready to run and it was the best option in sight at the time,” Rice said.
Arinata’s final time of 1:03.38 wasn’t fast and because it was the only 5 1/2-furlong turf race run on that day’s card, there was no Beyer Speed Figure assigned for the race. Visually, Arinata looked good, rating in sixth position, tipping out, and winning without being hard-used by Jose Ortiz.
“I was very pleased with it, she sat off it, went through traffic and punched pretty good,” Rice said. “I don’t know if she beat much, but she ran well enough to deserve a chance.”
Kendrick Carmouche rides Arinata from the rail.
Arinata will attempt to do what Sacred Goddess and Trading Trouble could not – succeed in a stakes race off a maiden victory. Both Sacred Goddess and Trading Trouble are making their second stakes tries in the Gimma.
Sacred Goddess beat Trading Trouble by a neck in a July 17 maiden race at Saratoga. Sacred Goddess then ran in the Bolton Landing Stakes on Aug. 17, where she raced in the back of the pack in a five-horse field and did a little running late to finish fourth, 3 1/2 lengths behind Snow Face Princess. That filly came back to run second in the Untapable Stakes at Kentucky Downs.
Jeremiah Englehart, the trainer of Sacred Goddess, said his filly was simply too far back and lacked racing experience in the Bolton Landing.
“I thought she did most of her running kind of late, the last sixteenth was the most impressive part of her race for me,” Englehart said.
Ricardo Santana Jr. rides Sacred Goddess from the outside post in this nine-horse field.
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After losing to Sacred Goddess, Trading Trouble won a 5 1/2-furlong maiden race for New York-breds by two lengths at Saratoga on Aug. 9. She was a nonfactor in the Untapable and comes back in 12 days in this spot.
Charlottesuniverse, trained by Mark Casse, is winless in two starts after finishing behind Sacred Goddess and then Trading Trouble in pair of maiden races. Casse also sends out Vernon Valley, who set the pace while keen in her lone turf start going two turns in the P.G. Johnson Stakes. Casse is removing the blinkers from Vernon Valley’s equipment.
Nacho Problem, trained by Amelia Green, meets statebreds for the first time since she won her maiden in gate-to-wire fashion here in June. Grazie, who went for 1 for 2 on dirt, tries turf for the first time for Todd Pletcher.
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