Girls Know Best gets first stakes win in Ladies' Turf Sprint

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A cutback in distance and a switch in surfaces has brought out the best in Girls Know Best since she was claimed in October, but she also was fortunate on Saturday at Gulfstream Park, as she captured the $135,000 Ladies’ Turf Sprint after the favored Blue Bahia, with whom she was battling in deep stretch, was pulled up, leaving Girls Know Best all alone.

Blue Bahia jogged off the track accompanied by an outrider pony. Her jockey, Paco Lopez, said she “stumbled badly,” and he was concerned for her health.

“She was going to win for fun,” said Blue Bahia’s trainer, Jason Servis, as he debriefed Lopez. He was not upset with Lopez for doing the right thing, just expressing an opinion that she would have won without the stumble.

“Did she jog back OK?” Servis asked.

“Yes,” Lopez said.

Her misfortune was good fortune for Girls Know Best, who was winning her first stakes race while scoring for the seventh time in 12 starts. She was claimed for $40,000 out of a six-furlong race at Keeneland in October by trainer Eddie Kenneally, who co-owns the filly with Brian Chenvert.

“She never had run on grass,” said Kenneally, who quickly added it wasn’t turf but a cutback in distance that most attracted him. “She’s extremely quick. She had been running three-quarters on dirt. I thought she’d like five furlongs on grass.

“We got very lucky,” Kenneally added. “Fortunately, we got a good horse. She has a lot of natural speed.”

After a winning dirt race at Churchill Downs in November – from which Kenneally was fortunate Girls Know Best was not taken for $50,000 – he moved her to turf at Gulfstream on Jan. 1, and she finished second in a stakes that’s a prep for the Ladies Turf.

On Saturday, Girls Know Best ($13) used her sharp speed and inside draw to battle for the early lead with Blue Bahia right alongside. Girls Know Best, under Javier Castellano, led narrowly through a 22.31-second opening quarter and a 44.53 half-mile, and she went on to complete five furlongs on the firm course in 56.45 seconds.

Girls Know Best finished three-quarters of a length in front of Just Talkin, with Cherry Lodge another neck back in third. Although Blue Bahia, the 5-2 favorite, was pulled up, she was so far in front of most of her rivals at that point that she still crossed the wire 10th in the field of 12.

Girls Know Best, 4, is by Caleb’s Posse and is out of a Maria’s Mon mare.

“She has no grass pedigree. Her natural speed is why we claimed her,” Kenneally said.

Girls Know Best earned $72,075 and now has career earnings of $211,274.