Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint: Serengeti Empress, Gamine likely to hook up early
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Battle lines are drawn, with strategy laid bare. Serengeti Empress will take an immediate fight Saturday to Gamine and whomever else dares to go barreling down the Keeneland backstretch on full throttle, making for what surely will be a memorable 14th running of the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.
Trainer Tom Amoss, as usual, has promised that Serengeti Empress will be taking no prisoners once the gates clang open.
“There are no secrets about our intentions,” said Amoss. “Speed is our strongest weapon and we intend to use it.”
Serengeti Empress, with Luis Saez riding, will break from post 7 – outside of all the other speed, which seemingly will be to her favor – in a field of eight in the seven-furlong Filly and Mare Sprint. She’s the 3-1 second choice on the morning line behind Gamine (post 2, John Velazquez), whose sensational victories in the Acorn and Test have made her the 7-5 program choice.
Gamine got her first feel of the Keeneland surface early Wednesday after arriving here the previous afternoon from her California base, where trainer Bob Baffert had the Into Mischief filly in regroup mode following her third-place finish as the odds-on favorite in the Sept. 4 Kentucky Oaks. Her last of five workouts since the Oaks was a five-furlong drill in 59.40 seconds last Saturday at Santa Anita.
“That little break she had really helped her, and she couldn’t be doing any better,” Baffert said Wednesday at Keeneland. “She looks great. I think seven-eighths is a great distance for her, one turn. Two turns, she’s not as effective, because you have to slow her down. She couldn’t be doing any better.”
Gamine, owned by Michael Petersen, will be trying to become the third straight 3-year-old to win the Filly and Mare Sprint, following Shamrock Rose (2018) and Covfefe (2019). Older horses had won all 11 prior runnings since the race was inaugurated in 2007 at Monmouth Park.
Serengeti Empress, owned by Joel Politi, came to peak prominence in May 2019 when going wire to wire in the 1 1/8-mile Kentucky Oaks. Over time, it became apparent the daughter of Alteration was more effective at slightly shorter distances, and Amoss has long targeted the Filly-Mare Sprint as a career-ending race for the brilliant filly. Her 2020 résumé is highlighted by a gritty front-running score in the Ballerina on the Aug. 8 Travers undercard at Saratoga.
“This filly has done a whole lot for me and my family and everyone else involved with her,” said Amoss. “Everything we’ve done with her the last few months has been with this race in mind. Hopefully she’ll break sharp and be tough to get past.”
Gamine also has shown brilliant speed, so early tactics by Velazquez from his inner post could go a long way in determining the outcome.
“I would have liked to have had an outside post, but I said that about the Acorn, too,” said Baffert, referring to the filly’s 18 3/4-length romp in the June 20 race going a one-turn mile at Belmont Park.
“I think the break’s so important when you’re going seven-eighths. She needs to get away. Knock on wood, she’s a good gate horse; she usually breaks well. There’s some fast horses in there, and I’m sure it’s gonna be a pretty hot pace. We’re on the inside, so she’s gonna have to just do her thing.”
Venetian Harbor (post 6, Manny Franco), another 3-year-old filly, also has enough early foot to press the issue, having gone gate to wire in winning the Raven Run here three weeks ago. Another potential pace presence, Inthemidstofbiz, was scratched Thursday when coming down with a slight fever; she had been assigned post 4.
As all that unfolds up front, the back five will be looking for a meltdown. Speech (post 1, Javier Castellano), another 3-year-old, might find herself in the ideal stalking spot when she makes her first start since finishing a troubled fourth in the Oaks. Winner of the 1 1/16-mile Ashland at Keeneland in July, the daughter of Mr Speaker also has been prepping with enthusiasm at Santa Anita in recent weeks.
“She doesn’t need to take her track with her,” said her trainer, Michael McCarthy. “In the Oaks, she had every right to run last. Proud of her to run fourth.”
Bell’s the One (post 9, Corey Lanerie), who nipped Serengeti Empress on the wire following an epic deep-stretch duel in the Derby City Distaff on the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby undercard, also stands to trip out well. The 4-year-old Majesticperfection filly has been a perennial overachiever throughout a 14-race career in which she has been favored exactly zero times despite having won five stakes.
“I guess if I had a different name, she’d get a little more respect,” said her bemused trainer, Neil Pessin, who will be making his Breeders’ Cup debut at age 61. “But that’s fine. I wouldn’t trade spots with anybody, really. She’s been training fantastic.”
The other come-from-behinders are Come Dancing (post 3, Irad Ortiz Jr.), Sally’s Curlin (post 8, Brian Hernandez Jr.), and Sconsin (post 5, James Graham), another 3-year-old.
Come Dancing was the 2-1 second choice when she finished sixth behind Covfefe in the 2019 Filly-Mare Sprint at Santa Anita. Trainer Carlos Martin has been playing catch-up since then, and only when the 6-year-old Malibu Moon mare won the Sept. 6 Honorable Miss at Saratoga in her most recent start did Martin feel as if she was back in peak form.
“It’s been a difficult year, but she’s thriving now,” he said. “I really think she has another great race in her.”
As the fourth of 12 Saturday races, the Filly-Mare Sprint is the first of nine straight BC events. Post time is 12:02 p.m. Eastern.