Divine Miss Grey dominates Interborough Stakes

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Divine Miss Grey completed a 10-month ascension from low-level claiming horse to stakes winner Monday with an authoritative 3 1/4-length victory in the $100,000 Interborough Stakes at Aqueduct.

Opting to take advantage of a sharp break, Kendrick Carmouche put Divine Miss Grey on the lead. After dueling with Lucy N Ethel through a quarter in 23.25 seconds and a half-mile in 46.20, Divine Miss Grey put away Lucy N Ethel and easily held Boule at bay in the lane to win her first stakes race. Boule finished 1 3/4 lengths in front of Going for Broke.

It was three lengths back to 99-1 shot Inconclusive. She was followed by Lucy N Ethel, Kalabaka, Heavenly Score, Alpine Sky, Littlemissbusiness and Come Dancing, the 2-1 second choice.

The victory was the seventh from 14 starts for Divine Miss Grey, a 4-year-old daughter of Divine Park owned by Corms Racing Stable and trained by Danny Gargan. Divine Miss Grey was claimed for $16,000 last March. After making one start for trainer Luis Ramirez, she was sent to Gargan, who has now won five races from eight starts with her.

“She’s bred to be a good horse,” Gargan said. “I know I claimed her, but she’s turned into a good horse. She was bred to be a good horse from the start. A good trainer has always had her. I was fortunate to be the trainer who has her right now.”

Initially, Gargan thought Divine Miss Grey would be sitting second or third in the Interborough. The more he looked at the races on the card, and the more he handicapped the Interborough, Gargan thought Divine Miss Grey could be in the mix early and expressed that sentiment to Carmouche.

“I told him if we could be there, be there, and we got lucky and we were there,” Gargan said.

Carmouche, never bashful to put his mount on the lead, thought Lucy N Ethel might outsprint his filly early. When he saw that jockey Manny Franco wasn’t overly aggressive, Carmouche put his filly on the lead.

“My filly broke so sharp and I looked outside and Manuel wasn’t being aggressive I said you know what, let me let my filly run,” Carmouche said. “She was doing it so easy. I said they can’t beat her from here because I thought she was the best horse in the race.”

Boule, who was sitting an up-close fourth early, moved into second in upper stretch but could not match strides with Divine Miss Grey, who ran seven furlongs in 1:23.30. She returned $6.40 as the slight favorite over Come Dancing.

Gargan, who had been looking to give Divine Miss Grey a little break, said he may have to reassess those plans. He said he would nominate Divine Miss Grey to the Grade 2, $300,000 Barbara Fritchie Stakes at Laurel Park on Feb. 17 and evaluate that race and other options before deciding what might be next.