Following easy comeback win, Gamine headed to Churchill for Derby City Distaff

ARCADIA, Calif. – Gamine was the fourth champion of 2020 to win this year when she cruised to an easy score in Sunday’s Grade 3 Las Flores Stakes for fillies and mares at Santa Anita.

The outstanding female sprinter last year, Gamine performed well within herself to beat three overmatched rivals in the Las Flores at six furlongs. That was fine with trainer Bob Baffert. Ridden by John Velazquez, Gamine led from the start and won by five lengths, finishing in 1:09.52.

“I told Johnny if everything went smooth, save her a little bit,” Baffert said Monday. “Don’t cut her loose.”

Baffert plans to start Gamine in the Grade 1 Derby City Distaff, a $500,000 race for fillies and mares at seven furlongs May 1 at Churchill Downs. In her last start in Kentucky, Gamine was an easy winner of the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Keeneland in November, a win that clinched her championship for owner Michael Lund Petersen.

This year, Essential Quality, the champion 2-year-old male of 2020, has won two stakes, including Saturday’s Grade 2 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland. Swiss Skydiver, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2020, won her first start of the year in the Grade 1 Beholder Mile at Santa Anita last month. Monomoy Girl, the outstanding older female of 2020, won the Bayakoa Stakes at Oaklawn Park in February.

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Whitmore, the champion sprinter; Channel Maker, the outstanding male turf horse; and Vequist, the champion 2-year-old filly; were beaten in their first races this year. Channel Maker has started in two seven-figure turf races in the Middle East, including a second in the $1 million Neom Cup on Feb. 20 in Saudi Arabia.

Authentic, the 2020 Horse of the Year; Improbable, the outstanding older male; and Rushing Fall, the champion turf female; were retired last year. Moscato, the top steeplechaser of 2020, sustained a tendon injury in 2020 and is sidelined.