You Bought Her closes out racing career in Sunshine Millions Distaff

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The send-off for You Bought Her won’t be nearly as big as the one California Chrome will receive a week from Saturday at Gulfstream Park, but it’ll be a sentimental farewell for trainer David Hinsley nonetheless.

You Bought Her, a 7-year-old mare with $505,945 in career earnings, is expected to make her 48th and final start here Saturday in the Sunshine Millions Distaff before going to the breeding shed with – you guessed it – California Chrome.

“We’ll miss her,” said Hinsley, the 68-year-old trainer who owns You Bought Her with his longtime partner and fellow Chicagoan, Richard Perkins. “It’s pretty neat she’s going to California Chrome and they’re both going out at basically the same time.”

The $100,000 Distaff is one of five Sunshine Millions events scheduled at Gulfstream for Saturday. Entries were to be released Wednesday afternoon for the series of Florida-bred stakes, with at least one race – the six-furlong Distaff – teetering on the edge of failing to fill.

Hinsley said if the Distaff did not receive a sufficient number of entries, he would wait a week and run You Bought Her in the Grade 3 Hurricane Bertie, one of six supporting stakes on the Jan. 28 card of the Pegasus World Cup. As most everyone in racing knows, the $12 million Pegasus shapes up as a rabidly anticipated rematch between California Chrome and Arrogate.

“I’d rather run her against Florida-breds, obviously,” Hinsley said this week from his winter headquarters at Tampa Bay Downs. “But either way, we’ll be shipping over there for her last race.”

The $200,000 Classic is the richest of the Sunshine Millions races. The other four all carry $100,000 purses, a far cry from the heyday of an event that actually lived up to its name when it was inaugurated in 2003 for both Florida-breds and California-breds.

You Bought Her, a two-time stakes winner with nine wins and 13 seconds, is the most accomplished filly or mare Hinsley has trained since he left his assistant’s post for Jinks Fires to go out on his own in 1989. The daughter of Graeme Hall was entered in the November sale at Keeneland but was withdrawn when it became apparent that she wouldn’t bring what Hinsley and Perkins believes she is worth.

“We were told we’d be lucky to get $150,000 for her,” said Hinsley. “We talked it over and thought we’d try to send her to California Chrome for $40,000, then run her through the sale next November in foal.

“She’s been such a sound and consistent mare that it’s going to be hard for us to say goodbye to her. We’ve had her since she was a baby. She loved to train, and she tried every time. We’re going to miss her, but maybe we can find another one just like her.”