Gamine stretches out on loaded Arkansas Derby undercard

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The mammoth, 14-race card that closes the Oaklawn Park meet Saturday has drawn as much quality as it has quantity.

Among the 187 horses entered on a program that includes two divisions of the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby and the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap are champion Storm the Court; Grade 1 winners Basin, Combatant, and Improbable; Grade 2 winners Tacitus, Nadal, Wells Bayou, and King Guillermo; and promising 3-year-olds Charlatan and Gamine.

“The card Saturday, it’s phenomenal,” trainer Bob Baffert said. “It’s unbelievable.”

Baffert’s starters include Gamine, who topped the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-olds in training auction last year when Michael Lund Petersen purchased her for $1.8 million. She makes the second start of her career in Saturday’s seventh race, an optional $100,000 claiming route for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles. She starts from post 8 in the field of 12.

“Gamine, I think she’s a superstar,” Baffert said.

:: Arkansas Derby: News, fields, past performances, and more

Gamine launched her career March 7, in a maiden special weight over 6 1/2 furlongs at Santa Anita. She led at each point of call and went on to a 6 1/4-length win while earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 87.

The score came at short odds. And she was no secret on the backside, either.

“I was having trouble getting her in here,” Baffert said Monday from Santa Anita. “It took like a month to get her in. The race wouldn’t fill. People knew about her.”

Baffert had intended to run Gamine back at Santa Anita, but racing was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic and he looked to Oaklawn.

“I was wanting to run her short one more time,” Baffert said. “This race came up, so I put her in there. We’re lucky she’s in. She’s stretching out for the first time.”

Gamine is a daughter of Into Mischief and the stakes-placed Kafwain mare Peggy Jane. She will be ridden by Martin Garcia.

Lund’s top horses through the years have included Mor Spirit, a memorable winner of the Metropolitan Handicap in 2017 at Belmont Park.

Other undercard races of interest Saturday include the fifth, an optional $75,000 claiming route for 4-year-olds and up over 1 1/16 miles. It’s drawn 12, including Grade 2 winner Long Range Toddy; multiple Grade 3 winner Rated R Superstar; stakes winners Bankit and Two Thirty Five; plus the up-and-coming Pirate’s Punch and Endorsed.

Endorsed last raced in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap, finishing fifth by 3 1/4 lengths in the March 7 race. The son of Medaglia d’Oro and the Grade 1-winning mare Dance Card is making his first start for trainer Bill Mott, as Kiaran McLaughlin has disbanded his stable. Joel Rosario has the mount on the Godolphin-owned horse, who is making his third start since running fourth in last year’s Travers at Saratoga.

The eighth race, an allowance, drew Moretti, a half-brother to Grade 1 winner Battle of Midway. The 10th is an allowance route for 3-year-olds that drew a number of Triple Crown nominees. The program closes with the 1 3/4-mile Trail’s End.

◗ Excession, runner-up to Nadal in the Rebel, is being freshened, trainer Steve Asmussen said.