Gallorette logical return spot for Mean Mary
Mean Mary got a belated start to her career, made up for that during much of 2020, and will try to improve further still in 2021, with a campaign that begins on Saturday at Pimlico in the Grade 3, $150,000 Gallorette for female turf runners.
The Gallorette is at 1 1/16 miles, short of the sweet spot for Mean Mary, but the race came up with a decided lack of pace. She will be favored to lead every step, and if that happens it will propel her to more significant races in coming months.
Mean Mary, 5, did not make her first start until September 2019, and came into 2020 with just a maiden and a first-level allowance in her win column. She went on to win a trio of graded stakes – the La Prevoyante at 1 1/2 miles, Orchid at 1 3/8 miles, and the New York at 1 1/4 miles– then was a narrow loser to eventual champ Rushing Fall in the Grade 1 Diana before completing her year in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf.
After a winter in Florida, she returned to Fair Hill, where trainer Graham Motion began contemplating her comeback race. The Grade 2 New York at Belmont on June 4 was considered, but Motion decided the Gallorette was a more logical stepping-stone.
“I thought it was a more progressive step than returning in a Grade 2 at a mile and a quarter,” Motion said Wednesday morning from Fair Hill while watching Mean Mary go through her daily gallop. “She’s ready to run. I didn’t want to keep training her another three weeks. It just fit better. Pimlico is an hour down the road. It’s easy, practical.”
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Luis Saez rode Mean Mary to four straight wins last year, including her graded stakes victories, and is back aboard Saturday.
Motion also entered Tuned, who most recently finished second in a second-level allowance at Keeneland, but he said she was entered merely as an insurance policy in case something unforeseen happened to Mean Mary between entry day Tuesday and race day. That is why there is no rider named on Tuned; Motion wanted to keep the mount open for Saez. If Mean Mary runs as planned, Tuned will scratch.
Motion won the Gallorette in 2005 with Film Maker and in 2018 with Ultra Brat, who like Mean Mary is owned by Alex Campbell Jr.
Since only one Motion runner will compete, the original field of six will be five. Two of Mean Mary’s challengers – Flighty Lady and Great Island – hail from the barn of Chad Brown, who is seeking to win this race for the fourth time in 10 years.
Flighty Lady, a French-raced import, was a stylish winner in her United States debut last month at Aqueduct in a first-level allowance. She appears to be the main threat to Mean Mary.
Great Island, a lightly raced 5-year-old, is seeking her first graded stakes win. She won the off-the-turf Suwannee River at Gulfstream in February in her last start.
Feel Glorious, trained by Christophe Clement, was a distant third to Mean Mary in last year’s New York before winning a pair of listed stakes. She most recently was second in the Sand Springs at Gulfstream on Florida Derby Day.
Vigilantes Way, from Shug McGaughey’s barn, was third in the Dahlia, the local prep for the Gallorette, last month at Pimlico. Like Great Island, she is seeking her first graded stakes win.
The Gallorette, first run in 1952, is named for the Hall of Fame Maryland-bred mare who was the champion older female of 1946, a year when her victories included the Met Mile against males. She raced 72 times, winning 21, and finished in the money 54 times.