Gamine cruises to victory in Great Lady M.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Gamine had no difficulty winning the sixth stakes of her career as a heavy favorite in Monday’s Grade 2 Great Lady M. Stakes for older fillies and mares at Los Alamitos.
Allowed to set the pace, Gamine dismissed four overmatched rivals en route to a comfortable victory by 10 lengths in the $200,000 Great Lady M. Stakes. The win emphasized her status as the nation’s leading female sprinter.
Ridden by John Velazquez in his first mount at Los Alamitos, Gamine ($2.40) ran 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:14.98 after setting early fractions of 21.61 seconds for the opening quarter-mile and 44.32 for a half-mile. Gamine earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 98.
On the turn, Gamine was challenged very briefly by Oaklawn stakes winner Edgeway, who raced on the inside but could not sustain the threat.
“Coming into the turn, the horse to beat was on the inside of me,” Velazquez said. “I let her do her thing, and that was is it from there.”
Bella Vita (22-1) closed from last to finish second, a neck in front of 45-1 Road Rager. Bella Vita had her graded stakes debut in the Great Lady M., while the third-place finish was Road Rager’s best result in a race of that significance.
Edgeway, the 3-1 second choice who won the $250,000 Carousel Stakes at Oaklawn Park in April, faded to finish fourth, followed by Qahira. Candura, Dynasty of Her Own, and Eyes Open were withdrawn early Monday.
Gamine gave trainer Bob Baffert a sweep of the two graded stakes at the two-week Los Alamitos summer meeting, which ended Monday. Baffert finished first and second in Sunday’s Grade 3 Los Alamitos Derby with Classified and Defunded.
Gamine, a 4-year-old filly by Into Mischief, races for Michael Petersen and has won 8 of 9 starts and earned $1,406,500. Bought as a 2-year-old at auction for $1.9 million, Gamine was so heavily favored that she attracted $248,224 of the $292,855 bet to place, leading to a minus pool of $33,822. There was no show wagering.
Gamine is unbeaten in three starts this year, all stakes, beginning with the Grade 3 Las Flores Stakes at six furlongs on April 4 at Santa Anita and the Grade 1 Derby City Distaff on May 1 at Churchill Downs.
This was not the widest margin of victory for Gamine, who won the Grade 1 Acorn Stakes at a mile for 3-year-old fillies by an astonishing 18 3/4 lengths in June 2020 at Belmont Park in her stakes debut.
The Great Lady M. Stakes was Gamine’s fourth consecutive win, a span that began with a victory by 6 1/4 lengths in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Keeneland last November.
“She’d been training well for it,” Baffert said of the Great Lady M. “They’ve got to get out of the gate. A thousand things can go wrong. When I run her, I get nervous. I’m more relieved after the race.
“She looked great. I’m glad she came through.”