Secret Gypsy scores with ease in Honorable Miss

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Secret Gypsy’s love affair with Saratoga’s main track continued Sunday when she rallied past the pace-setting One Smokin’ Lady approaching the quarter pole and cruised to a two-length victory in the Grade 2, $150,000 Honorable Miss Stakes.

Hour Glass finished second by a neck over Warbling, the 3-2 favorite who was moving when the gates opened and broke last under Julien Leparoux. Pretty Prolific and One Smokin’ Lady completed the order of finish.

Secret Gypsy, a 5-year-old mare, improved to 7 for 16, but she is 3 for 3 at Saratoga. At 2, Secret Gypsy won her debut here, running 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:03.26, a track record at the time. It was broken 13 days later by J Be K. At 3, Secret Gypsy won a first-level allowance race here. Last year, she tried the turf here, finishing 10th of 12 in the Finney Stakes.

"She loves this track," winning trainer Ronny Werner said. "It suits her well. She doesn't like a real heavy track, a laboring track. This track just seems to suit her. It's not super fast, it's a fair track. It's just one she always gets across well."

Known for her blazing speed in her youth, Secret Gypsy has learned to relax a little as she's gotten older. Sunday, under Jamie Theriot, Secret Gypsy stalked the pace of One Smokin' Lady, who went the first quarter in 22.43 seconds and the half-mile in 45.19.

Secret Gypsy crept up alongside One Smokin' Lady leaving the five-sixteenths pole, took command of the race turning for home, and was never seriously threatened. She covered the six furlongs in 1:09.82 and returned $6.10 as the second choice.

"She's changed her style of running a little bit this year," Werner said. "She's starting to sit off of them a little bit more and relax more. That just comes with age. They get a little wiser as they get older."

Secret Gypsy has won back-to-back stakes; before the Honorable Miss, she won the $100,000 Saylorville Stakes at Prairie Meadows.

"Her last couple of races, she’s really come around," Theriot said. "I think she's back to the filly she was when she first started."

Werner said the Grade 1 Ballerina here Aug. 28 might be too close for Secret Gypsy's next race. Werner said he may consider the $400,000 Presque Isle Downs Master Stakes on Sept. 11.