Into Mischief’s Gamine scores historic Acorn S. (G1) win
June 20, 2020
Gamine’s brilliant 18 3/4-length victory in Saturday’s $300,000 Acorn S. (G1) lowered the stakes record by more than a second in what was the 3-year-old Into Mischief filly’s first stakes start.
Owned by Michael Petersen, Gamine is Into Mischief’s sixth Grade 1 winner and his nation-leading 15th stakes winner of 2020.
The Acorn normally kicks off New York’s filly triple tiara, but this year serves as a prep for the Kentucky Oaks (G1) on Sept. 4.
Gamine earned her first 50 points on the Road to the Oaks with Saturday’s win. She has several more options to secure more points and her spot in the Oaks starting gate over the next two months.
Saturday’s performance was easily the best of her three lifetime starts and the most impressive of any horse on Belmont Day in New York. Like she did in her first two wins, she went right to the front out of the gate. After a half-mile in :45.28, Gamine was up by two lengths. Completely in control midway on the turn, she poured it on in the stretch to finish the mile in 1:32.55, lowering the mark of 1:33.58 set by Guarana last year.
Gamine earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 110 for her win, easily the highest of any 3-year-old in 2020.
“She did everything I wanted her to do,” winning jockey John Velazquez said. “She’s a little bit on the aggressive side, but I let her relax around the backstretch. Once we got to the five-sixteenths pole, I let her run. By the quarter pole, she opened up so quickly I had to look back. She’s very nice and professional. I wish they were all that easy.”
Two turns, one turn, she can handle either one,” said trainer Bob Baffert’s assistant Jimmy Barnes. “We’ll go home, give her a little time, and see what’s next for her. I can imagine something at Saratoga.”
Perfect in three starts, Gamine has earned $234,600. She was the $1.8 million sales-topper at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-old sale and was bred in Kentucky by Grace Thoroughbred Holdings LLC.