Cookie Dough impresses in My Dear Girl romp

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – In a virtual replay of the previous leg of the filly division of the Florida Sire Stakes, Cookie Dough once again dominated her competition when drawing away to a 7 1/2-length victory over Starship Nala and Blazing Brooke to capture Saturday’s $400,000 My Dear Girl at Gulfstream Park. The order of finish was exactly the same as in the seven-furlong Susan’s Girl four weeks earlier.

Cookie Dough proved an easy winner despite breaking from post 12 in the 13-horse My Dear Girl field – that post had yielded just two winners here over the past 13 seasons – and getting forced extremely wide entering the clubhouse turn. Cookie Dough angled a bit closer to the rail exiting the opening bend, but raced a bit rankly between horses in the run down the backstretch. She moved readily to the lead approaching the quarter pole before steadily extending her advantage through the stretch.

Starship Nala futilely attempted to chase the winner through the final quarter-mile but, as was the case in the Susan’s Girl, was no match for the winner. Blazing Brooke rallied from last to finish third while never threatening the top pair.

Cookie Dough is a homebred daughter of Brethren owned by Arindel and was ridden to victory by Jeffrey Sanchez. She completed 1 1/16 miles over a fast track in 1:47.50 and paid $6.

“She repeated the previous race, only she did it around two turns,” said trainer Stanley Gold, who won a record 20th Florida Sire Stakes series race. “And she had a good, late firing kick.”

Gold admitted he got a little worried when watching his filly carried out so wide into the opening bend.

“You get worried you’re going to get used up – when she finally settled down the backside she was in a good position, but you have to be concerned how much a toll it had to take,” said Gold. “I knew what we were trying to do [going two turns for the first time], and you worry if she’s going to falter late, because you never know, but she had plenty left.”

Gold said if the owners want to go to the Breeders’ Cup, “We’re going to be there."

Gold and Sanchez combined to win the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies with Awesome Feather. He also sent out Blonde Bomber to finish third behind Caledonia Road a year ago in the Juvenile Fillies.