Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf: Kathynmarissa reels in Gimme a Nother

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LEXINGTON, Ky. − Trainer Chad Brown knows a thing or two about the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, especially when it’s run at Keeneland.

He won the race here in 2015 with Stephanie’s Kitten, who was cutting back in distance after winning the Flower Bowl at 1 1/4 miles. He finished second in 2020 with Rushing Fall, beaten a neck by Audarya, and in 2022, In Italian was beaten a length by Tuesday. Those two horses were stretching out in distance.

“The mile and three-sixteenths here plays more like a mile and a quarter,” Brown said. “Stephanie’s Kitten was cutting back out of the Flower Bowl and was able to do it. My stretch-out horses didn’t get there, they got caught.”

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Saturday, Kathynmarissa, cutting back in distance from a victory in the 1 1/4-mile Flower Bowl at Belmont, proved Brown’s theory right again, as she rallied down the center of the Keenland turf course and outfinished a rail-rallying Gimme a Nother to win the $2 million Filly and Mare Turf by three-quarters of a length.

It was another half-length to Jancis, who got third by a neck over longshot Expensive Queen.

The victory was Brown’s second Breeders’ Cup win on the day, having won the Filly and Mare Sprint three races earlier with Ways and Means. Brown has now won 21 Breeders’ Cup races − third beind Aidan O’Brien and Bob Baffert − including four runnings of the Filly and Mare Turf.

Kathynmarissa won the fourth time from five starts this year with victories in the Grade 1 Diana, Grade 2 Flower Bowl, and Grade 3 Modesty, where she defeated last year’s Filly and Mare Turf winner Gezora. She is catalogued to be sold at Monday’s Fasig-Tipton auction.

Brown gives jockey Jose Ortiz a lot of credit for Kathynmarissa’s season, giving her the proper rides where he saves ground on the first turn and comes wide in the stretch. There were some anxious moments Saturday as Kathynmarissa appeared to come off the bridle at the three-eighths pole. Meanwhile, Gimme a Nother, under John Velazquez, was rallying along the inside and got a great split to make the lead in midstretch.

“Often times, she only grabs the bit in the lane,” Brown said of his mare. “Jose, I can’t say enough good things how he’s learned to get along with this filly and figure out some things about her that even I didn’t know. We had a plan; that last conversation with me and him almost out to the track was reaffirming if you get a good ground-saving position in the first turn, you can go as wide as you want in the second turn because she’s a clear-run horse. I learned that about her from watching Jose ride her. … I’m so glad these two found each other. Jose’s been a remarkable part of the success of this filly.”

Ortiz said the filly was struggling with the ground at the three-eighths pole.

“It took her a lot to get going,” Ortiz said. “At the three-eighths pole, I was struggling a little bit. Finally, she hit the clear and she gave me that run that she always puts up.”

Kathynmarissa, a 5-year-old daughter of American Pharoah owned by Michael Dubb and Michael Caruso, covered the 1 3/16 miles in 1:53.75 and returned $13.24 as the third choice.

It was just 24 hours earlier, Ortiz was unseated by a horse and was taken off the track on a stretcher. Ortiz took off a mount in the Juvenile Fillies, rode in the Juvenile Turf, and rode his entire roster of mounts on Saturday.

“I thought I broke my leg, it’s crazy, I got a lot of pain [Friday] but little by little I started recovering, got my movement back and I was able to ride yesterday,” Ortiz said. “I had to ride the bike for a long time. I’m feeling great today and I put up what was a great ride.”

Gimme a Another, the South African-bred mare who had won her last four starts dating back to September 2025, looked “home-free” according to Velazquez after getting through on the rail, but she couldn’t hold off Kathynmarissa.

“He had so much horse, but he almost got there too handily, you know,” trainer Graham Motion said. “I knew someone would come. She ran awesome.”

Blue Bolt did not run awesome as she finished 11th of 12 as the even-money favorite. Despite her 6-for-6 record in Europe, Blue Bolt’s connections opted to stretch her out in distance and face females rather than run against males at her preferred one mile distance.

Colin Keane, Blue Bolt’s rider, said his filly didn’t handle the ground well.

“At no point was I really as comfortable as you’d like to be,” Keane said. “The ground felt horrible on her and I was beat before the trip really came into it. Maybe the year’s catching up with her.”

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