Gamine sets track record in Breeders’ Cup F&M Sprint (G1)

Into Mischief’s Gamine capped a stellar 3-year-old season with a track-record setting performance in Saturday’s $1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (G1) at Keeneland.

Gamine had been off since running third in the Sept. 4 Kentucky Oaks (G1), and returned with a performance reminiscent of her Test S. (G1) and Acorn S. (G1) wins. Facing older horses for the first time, Gamine ceded the lead to Serengeti Empress, who blazed the first half mile in :44.27. Gamine mounted her challenge at the top of the stretch, wresting the lead from the pacesetter soon after, then drew off with startling ease to win by 6 1/4-lengths in 1:20.20 for the seven furlongs on a fast track.

“That’s the baddest bitch in the land right there!,” trainer Bob Baffert exclaimed. “I knew [Serengeti Empress] was going to go and I told Johnny [Velazquez, on Gamine] if you get separation to get to the outside. She is doing as well as she did when she won the Acorn. She is just brilliant. She is the fastest filly going one turn I’ve ever trained. I wanted it bad for her. What she’s gone through. She deserved it. Of all my races, this meant the most to me. I felt so bad for the filly. But [owner] Michael Lund Petersen, he’s behind me. Today I just want to show the world it was, today was her day.”

Gamine’s big payday made her racing’s newest millionaire, at $1,003,000. She is now a three-time Grade 1 winner and is likely to race again next year according to Baffert.

“There’s a race at Santa Anita, if I wanted to run her– the La Brea,” Baffert said. “But I don’t know, we might give her a break. And like I said, I would like to venture out and run her beyond seven-eighths, a mile. And I really think, as she gets older, she’s going to mentally be able to handle something like that. I think as she gets older, she’s going to be even better and we’re just going to have fun with her.”

Gamine was bred in Kentucky by Grace Thoroughbred Holdings and sold to Petersen for a sales-topping $1.8 million at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-old sale.

Gamine is Into Mischief fourth Breeders’ Cup winner and the first of two on Saturday, with Authentic taking the $6 million Classic in the final race of the day. Gamine is his second straight Filly and Mare Sprint winner after Covfefe took last year’s running.