The Gamely Stakes (Grade 1)- $400.000 Purse
SA- For Fillies and Mares Three Years Old and Upward
One Mile and One Eighth on the Turf
May 29, 2023

This Memorial Day, we’ll have plenty of great racing taking place and that will include Grade 1 action from SA. It is here where the 18th running of the Gamely Stakes will take a place, a race that has been a Grade 1 since inception. In its early years, it was run at HOL, and would move over to SA when that track faded into the history books. Initially, the purse was $350.000, and it would dip to $250.000 for a while before a climb all the way up to $500.000 in 2019. However, in 2021, it was reduced to the present-day level of $400.000. That has not impacted the level of competition, however, and the race has seen two different repeat winners. In 2010 and 2011, Miz Liz got it done, and in both 2021 and 2022, it was Proud Eights. Estero Farms was the first trainer to lead Proud Eights to victory, and last year, Mb Stables guided her to the win as a six-year-old. Her fabulous racing career is now over, and she has since produced three foals, hooking up with some very good sires. We’ll have a field of six in this one, and half of them were seen last month in the mile and a half Bewitch at KEE last month. Here’s a look at the field!

#1- Zalinda (Threshold, ridden by J Lezcano)- No one in this field has made more than Zalinda, who is over $1,200.000 in earnings for her career. The seven-year-old mare has won a Grade 1 on one previous occasion, coming in the 2021 Flower Bowl. That win got her into the BC that year, and though she did not run well there, it did not dampen her career. Since that point, she has become a horse that has consistently been able to hit the board though the trainer would like to see a few more wins. She did get one of them this year in the Grade 2 Hillsborough two back, and she was fourth in the Bewitch last month.

#2- Tessas Star (Glorify Stables, ridden by F T Alvarado)- She is also a horse that ran in the Bewitch at KEE, and of those three, it was her getting the best finish, placing second. Overall, the four-year-old is lightly raced with just nine starts and her biggest win to date came last September in the $225.000 Wonder Where Stakes at WO for Canadian then and. She’s been running in graded company since then and has been very consistent in those races but still cannot call herself a graded winner. If she keeps running the way she has been of late, one three-year-old think that will come eventually. Maybe a shorter distance than what she has been running in lately will help.

#3- Coconut Milk (Wood Duck Stables, ridden by Mario Gutierrez)- The Chai Bay filly has a strong three-year-old campaign, with three wins and making over $600.000 in the process. She would close out the year by winning both the Grade 1 QE II Challenge Cup and the Grade 1 Matriarch, though in between them had a disappointing start in the BC. She would have seemed destined for big things this year but has made only one start in 2023. Unfortunately, that was not good, running ninth of nine in the Grade 3 Wilshire here at the end of April. It’ll be important for her to bounce back well from that in this one.

#4- Ruby Ridge (TwinTowersRacing, ridden by L Saez)- This is the only three-year-old in the field, and that will allow her three pounds in comparison to the rest of the field. That might not be enough, as she comes off a couple of duds. Overall, she only has one win in eight starts, but if you’ve been close that doesn’t have to be a deal breaker. However, that has not been the case, as her last two starts include a ninth in the Suncoast and being beaten by six lengths in an N1X allowance at WO last month. Sure. it was raining that day and she doesn’t seem to like any moisture on the track, but I’m not confident in her jumping up into this field and grabbing a win, or something close.

#5- Villeneuve (Mo Mentum Farm, ridden by L Dettori)- In 16 career starts, Villeneuve was won four of them, and that includes each of the two other times that she has been on this racetrack. Wins in allowances here in both February and March would lead to her going to KEE for the Bewitch, but she struggled there. That was not her stake debut, but Villeneuve has simply failed to step up when Mo Mentum has tried to bring her forward to this level in the past. Perhaps running her on a familiar course, and one that she has success can be what finally gets her over the top in a race like this.

#6- Loihi (Martyparty, ridden by J R Velazquez)- A horse that knows how to win, visiting the winner’s circle ten times in 28 career starts. As good as that might seem, she also has been a bit inconsistent over her career as well. For every nice-looking race, like the Grade 3 RGD victory, there are head scratching performances. Comes off a win in the $100.000 Santa Barbara, but based on her career, I am not sure if that’s a good or a bad omen for this one.

Prediction: 1-3-2-5

— NS

Categories: Grade I, STAKES ARTICLES