Gas Station Sushi switches tactics to take Beaumont S. (G3)

Gas Station Sushi, a 3-year-old Into Mischief filly, made her first graded stakes start in the $150,000 Beaumont S. (G3) Sunday at Keeneland and came away with a 1 1/2-length win in the “about” seven-furlong contest.

The $240,000 auction buy was making her first start since taking her debut on Aug. 6 at Del Mar, when she battled for the lead the entire trip. The Beaumont set up differently after the bay filly got off a beat slow and was several lengths from the front soon after the break.

With several foes in front of her contesting the lead, Gas Station Sushi didn’t have clear running until just outside the quarter pole, when Corey Nakatani took her from inside to out, rallying strongly through the stretch to win going away in 1:26.77 on the fast main track.

“She’s a special filly. (Sitting off the pace) wasn’t the plan,” said Nakatani. “She didn’t get away great. I was trying to sit in and be patient with her. I have such high (regard for) her. I told (David Meah, assistant to winning trainer Richard Baltas) don’t worry about where she is. I think she can do anything and she proved today she can overcome adversity and put in her run.”

Into Mischief has 56 winners to date in 2017, second-most of any North American sire. He is also the co-leader of black type winners this year, with seven, including leading Kentucky Derby (G1) candidate Audible.

Gas Station Sushii pedigree notes from the TDN

Scooped up by these connections for $240,000 at the 2017 OBS March Sale after breezing a furlong in :10 flat, the winner hails from the family of GI Vosburgh S. hero and GI Breeders’ Cup Sprint runner-up Taste of Paradise. Five Star Daydream, who captured a stakes and placed in the GIII Tempted S., produced a colt by Archarcharch in 2016 and a filly by Can the Man in 2017. She visited Hit It a Bomb last spring.