Got Stormy trying to make case for Eclipse in Matriarch

DEL MAR, Calif. – Ballots will be going out to Eclipse Awards voters in mid-December and are due immediately after Jan. 1, so there’s still the opportunity to make a final impression on the electorate, and that’s one reason Got Stormy has returned to Southern California for the Grade 1, $300,000 Matriarch Stakes on Sunday at Del Mar.

Got Stormy most recently finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita behind another top candidate for the female turf championship, Uni. That evened the score at 1-1 in head-to-head matchups between the two this year, with Got Stormy having defeated Uni in the Fourstardave, which like the Breeders’ Cup Mile was against males. Uni has two Grade 1 wins this year, her other via the First Lady for females at Keeneland, a race Got Stormy skipped after having run against males in the Woodbine Mile.

A win in the Matriarch, a one-mile grass race for females, would give Got Stormy as many Grade 1 wins as Uni, who is done for the year.

“If we’d have won the Breeders’ Cup, I don’t know that we’d be there,” Mark Casse, who trains Got Stormy, said Friday morning from his training center in Ocala, Fla. “We talked about it before the Breeders’ Cup, but if she’d have won the Breeders’ Cup, we probably would have called it a year. We’re still trying to prove we’re the best. We still feel we’re in the hunt.”

The Matriarch, which drew 10 others, will be a strong test. Got Stormy will be facing the likes of Daddy Is a Legend – runner-up in this race last year behind Uni – as well as Juliet Foxtrot, Significant Form, and Toinette. Of the seven graded grass stakes set to be contested the final two days of the meet at Del Mar, the Matriarch is the strongest and, considering the Eclipse Award implications, the most significant.

The Matriarch is race 7 on a 10-race card that begins at noon Pacific and will bring to a close the brief Del Mar fall season, which had two days canceled owing to weather, including Thanksgiving Day. Rain Wednesday through Friday likely will leave the course less than firm Sunday.

The card has plenty on offer. Preceding the Matriarch are the Grade 3, $100,000 Cecil B. DeMille for 2-year-olds, and the Grade 2, $250,000 Hollywood Turf Cup, which is topped by Breeders’ Cup Turf runner-up United.

The DeMille is race 3, the Turf Cup race 5. Race 4 is a 6 1/2-furlong allowance that features the comeback of the well-regarded 3-year-old Instagrand, who is making his first start since being injured in the Pat Day Mile in May. This race could work as an ideal prep for the Grade 1 Malibu at seven furlongs on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita.

The Turf Cup is leg 1 and Matriarch leg 3 of a pick six that will have a mandatory payout owing to it being closing day.

Got Stormy should be favored in the Matriarch. She landed post 7 in the 11-horse field and will have her regular rider Tyler Gaffalione aboard.

Toinette has won three of four starts this year – each victory at a mile – and most recently won the Grade 2 Goldikova on closing day of Santa Anita’s fall meeting. She has won seven of 10 lifetime.

“She’s coming along well. I’m pleased with her,” said her trainer, Neil Drysdale. “She should be right there.”

Drysdale also sends out Goldikova runner-up Simply Breathless.

Significant Form will seek to give trainer Chad Brown his third straight victory in this race, following Uni and Off Limits. As with Uni, Significant Form had her final prep for the Matriarch more than two months ago, winning the Grade 3 Noble Damsel at Belmont.

“We’ve learned with her that she runs well with time between races,” Brown said.

Daddy Is a Legend was freshened after finishing third in the Grade 1 Just a Game at Belmont in June and tuned up for this race with a dominating win against a high-level allowance field at Keeneland.

Juliet Foxtrot was second to Uni in the First Lady after a narrow loss here during the summer meeting against Vasilika in the Grade 2 John Mabee.

The longshots Giza Goddess, Lakerball, Mucho Unusual, Painting Corners, and Storm the Hill round out the field.