Breeders’ Cup Champ Gamine Resurfaces in Sunday’s Las Flores

ARCADIA, CA – Idle since winning the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) November 7 at Keeneland, Bob Baffert’s brilliant 4-year-old filly Gamine towers over her competition going 6 furlongs in Sunday’s $100,000 Las Flores Stakes (G3) at Santa Anita.

Supplemented at a cost of $2,000, owner Michael Lund Petersen’s Gamine will face three rival fillies and mares in what will be her first start at Santa Anita since she aired by 6 1/4 lengths in her 6 1/2-furlong debut on March 7, 2020. A winner of both the Acorn Stakes (G1) going a one-turn mile at Belmont Park on June 20 and the Test Stakes (G1) going 7 furlongs at Saratoga August 8, Gamine, who was purchased for $1.8 million at the Fasig Tipton Mid Atlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale in May 2019, has 4 wins from 6 starts with earnings of $883,000. Her 2 losses came via disqualification after failing post-race drug tests.

A disappointing third and subsequently disqualified to last in the Kentucky Oaks (G1) September 4, Gamine and John Velazquez bounced back with a huge effort in a return to sprinting as she sat second turning for home en route to a 6 1/2 length score as the even-money favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint.

With Velazquez set to ride for the fifth consecutive time, Gamine has been favored in all 6 of her starts – 5 of them as the odds-on choice. By Into Mischief out of Peggy Jane, by Kafwain, Gamine is a brilliant talent that will no doubt be pointed to the Breeders’ Cup in November at Del Mar.    

While Gamine lacks recency, her talented stablemate Qahira, who will be making her third start of the meet, does not and is the clear-cut second choice. A winner of the 6 1/2-furlong Kalookan Queen Stakes January 10, she was subsequently third, beaten 4 1/2 lengths by Baffert’s Merneith in the Santa Monica Stakes (G2) going 7 furlongs on February 13.

Owned by Baoma Corporation, Qahira has been ridden in her last 2 starts by the now-departed Joel Rosario, so Flavien Prat has the call on Sunday. A close third going 6 1/2 furlongs 3 starts back in the Chillingworth Stakes (G3) here on Sept. 25, Qahira, a 5-year-old mare by Cairo Prince out of the Bates Motel mare Motel Lass, has five wins from nine starts and she’ll be seeking her first graded stakes win in the Las Flores. 

Hang a Star and Biddy Duke complete the field of 4 entries.