Gambling Girl raises stakes with wide-rallying score in Joseph A. Gimma
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Gambling Girl was no match for Miracle when the two met in a maiden race at Saratoga two months ago. Time, and experience, has seemed to do Gambling Girl a world of good.
Since Miracle beat Gambling Girl by 6 3/4 lengths on July 27, Gambling Girl has come back to win a maiden race by 10 1/4 lengths and Friday validated that effort with a 1 3/4-length victory over favored Miracle in the Joseph A. Gimma Stakes for New York-bred juvenile fillies at Aqueduct.
Last of five early under Irad Ortiz Jr., Gambling Girl worked her way four wide into contention down the backstretch, was three wide around the turn and then wider still in the lane. Once straightened away by Ortiz, Gambling Girl edged clear from Miracle, who finished second by three-quarters of a length over pacesetting longshot Les Bon Temps. Security Code was fourth followed by Lady Mine.
Small Pebbles and Warsaichi scratched.
Ortiz believes added distance has been a friend to Gambling Girl, who was beaten in a five-furlong race in June at Belmont Park and then at six furlongs when she faced Miracle at Saratoga. Her maiden victory and the Gimma came at seven furlongs.
“She’s the kind of horse you have to ride, six [furlongs] is too short, seven-eighths last time she win by 10 you could see the past performance,” Ortiz said. “I was pretty confident in the distance, I wasn’t afraid to try and be close and she put me in a forward place and I jumped on them a little earlier than usual and still had some horse in the end.”
Gambling Girl, a daughter of Dialed In who brought $200,000 as a yearling at the 2021 Saratoga auction, covered the seven furlongs in 1:27.62 and returned $8.30 to win. She is owned by Mike Repole and trained by Todd Pletcher.
“She showed talent in the mornings and I think she finally put it together in her last start at Saratoga and thought she followed that up with a good effort today against at least one very talented filly in [Miracle], said Byron Hughes, assistant to Pletcher. “I thought it was a very good effort.”
Flavien Prat, the rider of even-money favorite Miracle said, his filly “just got outrun. She ran her race.”
Security Code was fractious at and in the gate to the point where jockey Jose Lezcano had to get off his filly twice. She then got away slowly and wasn’t much of a factor.
“She’s rough in the gate all the time, she was rough in the gate when she won at Saratoga and we’re working on that,” trainer Phi Serpe said.
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