Canoodling steps up in class, distance for Gamely Stakes

ARCADIA, Calif. - After two wins in Grade 3 races this year, Canoodling has earned a start in a Grade 1 race on turf in the $400,000 Gamely Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/8 miles at Santa Anita on May 30.

The level of competition and distance of the Gamely will be a test for Canoodling, who won the Megahertz Stakes in January and the Wilshire Stakes on May 1 from the front. Those races were at a mile on turf.

“The distance situation is a question,” trainer Mike Puype said Sunday. “She’ll be the speed of the race.”

Owned by B4 Farms, Canoodling has won 8 of 16 starts and has earned $342,023 racing in California, New Mexico and Texas. The Grade 3 stakes wins earlier this year are the most prestigious of her four stakes wins. In her only other appearance in a Grade 1 race, Canoodling finished fifth of seven in the La Brea Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at seven furlongs on dirt on Dec. 26.

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Canoodling will be part of a small field in the Gamely led by the six-time stakes winner Going Global. Other expected starters are England’s Rose, who was third in the Wilshire; Going to Vegas, who was second in the Grade 3 Santa Ana Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf on March 26; and Ocean Road, who was sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar last November.

Puype said the ongoing disruption to national equine travel caused by the absence of the Tex Sutton charter airplane service has affected the Gamely, which normally would have shippers from a few prominent stables from other circuits. Tex Sutton’s service was disrupted in May 2021 after its lease expired on a cargo plane.

“This isn’t your typical Grade 1,” Puype said. “Transportation arrangements have made it hard for people to come in. What do I lose by taking a chance?”

Ocean Road, who won an allowance race at Keeneland in April in her 2022 debut, is being sent to California for the Gamely via Federal Express, trainer Brendan Walsh said.

On Wednesday, Ocean Road will be shipped via van from Walsh’s base in Kentucky to Indianapolis where she will be flown to Southern California.