Got Stormy ensures Eclipse battle with Matriarch win

DEL MAR, Calif. – She spent the year going from Florida to Kentucky, on to New York, up to Toronto, and then twice to California, with a busy schedule between those last two starts. But none of it has fazed Got Stormy, who continued her brilliant second half of the year with another Grade 1 victory on Sunday in the $302,106 Matriarch at Del Mar.

Only four weeks ago, Got Stormy had finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Mile behind a top rival for the female turf Eclipse Award, Uni. Since then, Got Stormy returned to trainer Mark Casse’s training center in Ocala, Fla., then went to Kentucky before again being flown west.

“The good news is we pretty much have divisions everywhere,” Casse said. “She’s amazing. Put her on a plane, a van. She’s like, ‘Where we going next?’”

The answer: the Eclipse Awards. Got Stormy has made a tough category all the more difficult. She and Uni both have two Grade 1 wins this year, both beat males in one of those wins, and they are 1-1 in head-to-head match-ups. Their strength of schedule is far more impressive than defending champ Sistercharlie, who faced a soft long-distance division this year and failed in her quest to win the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf for the second straight year.

Those résumés will be left for Eclipse Award voters to evaluate in the coming month. What they’ll see regarding Got Stormy’s 2019 finale was a thoroughly professional effort, in which she rallied from sixth against a top-class field while polishing off a mile on firm turf in 1:34.24, the fastest of the six Matriarchs run here since Hollywood Park closed.

Got Stormy ($4.80), the favorite, was in the clear midway through the race while midpack under regular rider Tyler Gaffalione. She moved sharply on the far turn, got the best of Juliet Foxtrot in upper stretch, then held off the fast-finishing Daddy Is a Legend to win by three-quarters of a length.

Daddy Is a Legend, second in this race last year behind Uni, had a compromised trip. She was last early after getting squeezed between rivals leaving the gate, then came with a ferocious late run.

Juliet Foxtrot wound up third, three-quarters of a length behind Daddy Is a Legend, then came, in order, Toinette, Storm the Hill, Simply Breathless, Significant Form, Giza Goddess, Mucho Unusual, Lakerball, and Painting Corners.

The win was the fourth in eight starts this year for Got Stormy, whose final four starts were a win against males in the Fourstardave, seconds in both the Woodbine Mile and Breeders’ Cup Mile, and then the Matriarch.

“She’s been through a lot the last month,” Casse said. “She keeps firing.”

Casse, who trains Got Stormy for Gary Barber, said a major factor in her development has been her comportment. He said she doesn’t get upset pre-race like in her younger days.

Got Stormy, by Get Stormy, has now won eight times in 18 starts, and the $180,000 she earned Sunday brought her career earnings to $1,430,578. She will remain in training at age 5, Casse said, after first getting a freshening in Ocala.