Gambling Girl (orange cap) rallies for second in the G1 Longines Kentucky Oaks. Coady Photography/Churchill Downs.

By Tom Law

“That’s why they run the race.”

Mallory Mort said it Thursday, the day before Gambling Girl ran in the Kentucky Oaks. And he said it again at 6:20 p.m. Friday, about 20 minutes after Gambling Girl finished an almost too-good-to-be second in the Kentucky Oaks.

“Holy cow, can you believe it?” added the longtime manager at Marlene Brody’s Gallagher’s Stud, which bred and raised Gambling Girl. “Halfway up the stretch I’m not sure we thought she could win, but we thought maybe she’d be second. Then she just kept coming and coming. Wow. Wow. Wow.”

Three wow worthy indeed.

Gambling Girl didn’t win the 149th Kentucky Oaks and the sting of the defeat was easy to see in the seconds and minutes following the race from owner Mike Repole and trainer Todd Pletcher. Repole spoke to the media for a few minutes, took the loss in stride and applaued the winner Pretty Mischievous.

“Great, great effort by the winner,” Repole said. “It’s a very fair and deserving second, but it sucks.”

Mort watched the race more than 800 miles away, with his wife Karen in Brody’s living room.

“We were yelling pretty good at the TV screen,” Mort said. “Watching it was great. She just kept coming up and we were all yelling. It was fantastic. When they hit the wire we just said, ‘oh my.’ It’s amazing.”

Gambling Girl came up a neck short at the finish, her second straight graded stakes placing and third overall in her first Grade 1 attempt. Pretty Mischievous improved off her second in the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks for her second victory in three starts this year for Godolphin, trainer Brendan Walsh and jockey Tyler Gaffalione.

“We’re still having some champagne, even though we didn’t win,” Mort said. “You sure can’t downplay the filly’s effort; a little disappointing not to get there, but wow. It might take awhile to get over that one. She gave the effort, that’s for sure. Sweet and disappointing at the same time.”

Repole bought Gambling Girl for $200,000 at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga New York-bred yearling sale. The daughter of Dialed In out of the Empire Maker mare Tulipmania gave him back-to-back runner-up finishes in the Oaks, after Nest just missed against Secret Oath in 2022. Repole also owned Unlimited Budget, who finished third in the 2013 Oaks.

“We want to win these races. This is why you get into racing, days like this, races like this,” said Repole, who owns Kentucky Derby morning-line favorite Forte with St Elias Stable. “Winning is extremely special. Being in them is special. I’m the only guy that would take third over second any day. … The horse ran really good. … Her next start should be the Alabama at a mile and a quarter. She just runs all day. She wants to run all day.”

Gambling Girl went off as the 13-1 seventh choice in the full field of 14, behind 8-5 favorite Wet Paint, Southlawn, Botanical, Wonder Wheel, Defining Purpose and Pretty Mischievous. She earned $227,500 of the Oaks’ $1.25 million purse, boosting her bankroll to $484,910 from a record of 2-3-2 in 10 starts.

My Boy Tate keeps an eye on the action at trainer Michelle Nevin’s barn at Belmont Park Thursday. Susie Raisher photo

By Joe Clancy

Billy Koch called Michelle Nevin Tuesday and was pretty direct.

“You know, I’m kinda sad.”

Nevin didn’t hesitate. “Don’t be sad,” she said. “It’s a happy thing, a good thing.”

Nobody should be sad, even if it hurts a little to see the end of New York-bred champion My Boy Tate’s racing career.

The 9-year-old gelding – bred and trained by Nevin, and co-owned by her and Koch’s Little Red Feather Racing Stable – exits sound, happy and ornery as ever with $837,288 in earnings over a 38-start, 11-win career. Champion New York-bred male sprinter of 2021, My Boy Tate made his debut as a 3-year-old in 2017, joined the Little Red Feather team after two starts in Nevin’s silks and made himself a favorite with just about everyone he met.

“You know, you know . . . there’s a lot of love for this horse,” Koch said. “He had an unbelievable career, better than so many horses. How many horses are still running in stakes races after as many starts as he had, as a 9-year-old?”

Not many.

By Boys At Tosconova out of the Sharp Humor mare Backslash, My Boy Tate was foaled at Rockridge Stud in Hudson, spent time with Nevin’s father Michael, went to Rudy Delguidice in Florida for early prep work and showed up in Nevin’s barn as a 2-year-old in 2016. The dark bay brought a reputation to the track.

“He was just a quirky fella,” said Nevin. “He was gelded very early on for being wicked mean and has had that personality throughout his life. We just accepted him. You have to hand all the credit to the grooms, the hotwalkers and the riders who dealt with him. He was awful wicked.”

Nevin says wicked the same way she might say charming. My Boy Tate wasn’t all that mean to people (especially those with apples), just competitive, opinionated and steadfast. Through seven seasons of racing, he never really lost that edge.

“He takes every day of training like he’s got to show off,” Nevin said. “He just has an extremely strong personality, very tough to gallop, not allowed to go anywhere without the pony because he’s such a bully. I thought he would slow down as he got older. He’s competitive, so competitive at everything he does.”

The traits served him well on the racetrack. Fourth in the debut (Jan. 20, 2017 at Aqueduct) and second by a nose the next time, he joined the Little Red Feather team for his third start in April. Third there, he broke through that summer – winning a Saratoga maiden to start a five-race winning streak. The skein took him through two allowance conditions and stakes wins in the 2018 Say Florida Sandy and Hollie Hughes at Aqueduct. He went on to add four more stakes wins (he was disqualified from two other stakes scores, once for a therapeutic medication overage and once for interference), plus two additional allowance victories and finished with 10 seconds and three thirds to go with the 11 wins. All but three starts came in New York.

His 2021 season was his best with three wins and three seconds from 10 starts for $227,500. The campaign started early with fourths in the Gravesend and Say Florida Sandy a week apart at Aqueduct in January. Next came wins in the Hollie Hughes and Haynesfield at Aqueduct, solid seconds in two stakes at Saratoga, a Parx Racing allowance romp, a 6-length thrashing of the Leon Reed Memorial at Finger Lakes negated by the medication disqualification and a second to Lobsta in a New York Stallion Series stakes in December. He was named champion New York-bred male sprinter at season’s end, an honor for which he was a finalist several times (including 2022).

Last year, My Boy Tate (named for Nevin’s nephew) opened with a half-length win over Lobsta in the Say Florida Sandy – only to be placed fourth for interference – but rebounded to win the Hudson at Aqueduct in October and place in two other stakes while earning $139,500.

Nevin brought her stable star back for another campaign in 2023, but he finished fourth in the Say Florida Sandy – a race he started in five times – in January and was fifth in the Affirmed Success April 30. There was never a thought of finding easier competition in the claiming ranks.

“He was on his favorite track, he loved Aqueduct, on a sloppy track, and he loved a sloppy track,” Nevin said of the final start. “I just thought, ‘If he doesn’t show up today, we’ll call it quits.’ He was a little quieter than normal in the paddock, usually he’s a bit of a wild fella. After he ran and didn’t run any good, he was irate. He’s just lost a step and that’s OK. I’m still really proud of the horse. He’s been amazing. He’s carried me since I started training and every time he won a race was a major highlight for me.”

Koch echoed the sentiment.

My Boy Tate will have plenty of time to “destroy” Jolly Balls in retirement. Susie Raisher photo

“It’s hard for a horse to retire sound, this is a business,” he said. “You put horses in claiming races, you sell horses. We’re a fiduciary to the partnership so it’s especially hard for us but he deserves to retire. Credit Michelle for keeping him sound for so long. I can’t say enough good things about her, about him, about the experience.”

Nevin credited her barn staff, especially groom Nazario Flores and exercise rider Tommy Singhe, for the care they showed My Boy Tate during his racing career. He reached beyond the barn on plenty of occasions too, starting as the favorite 14 times and winning fans along the way.

“He loves apples and a couple people came by with bags of apples for him this morning,” Nevin said. “It almost melted my heart. We’re going to miss having him in the barn.”

My Boy Tate heads to the ReRun Thoroughbred retirement farm in East Greenbush where he’ll be evaluated for a second career by Lisa Molloy and staff. Nevin will “be stalking him” to make sure the right fit emerges.

The Early Days
Nobody is more responsible for My Boy Tate’s development than Florida horseman Rudy Delguidice, a 2-year-old pinhooker and yearling-to-2-year-old prepper. Delguidice started working with My Boy Tate early in his yearling year and was impressed – if a little bit shocked – from the start.

“In the barn he was great; he laid down, he was classy, you could tie him, do anything with him,” Delguidice said Thursday. “As soon as you put the saddle on, and left the barn, he was hard to ride.”

Delguidice plied the youngster with mints, spent $300 on bits from Australia and put his horsemanship skills to the test.

“You do babies, you take your time, the stall to a round pen to a little field . . . he wanted to go right to the racetrack,” Delguidice said. “He didn’t want to be in company, he didn’t want to be behind horses. You wanted to ride him collectively, use your leg, all that stuff. He didn’t want any part of that. He wanted to do his own thing.”

Delguidice let him, and focused on making incremental progress, developing the mind as much as the body – hoping for the best at every step. My Boy Tate kept eating mints, being agreeable in the stall, but he challenged riders at every juncture. Until Delguidice gave in.

“You know what?” the former jockey told the horse. “We’re going to do it your way.”

My Boy Tate responded to the hands-off approach, trained on his own, kept learning, kept improving.

“You try to say this is the right way to do it but when you get on a horse that’s telling you it’s not the right way you’ve got to get along,” said Delguidice. “You can’t instill your will. You’ve got to get away from thinking you know best. He frustrated me, but look how successful the horse was. He knew what to do.”

Delguidice, injured in a riding accident last summer at the Classic Mile training center and “working hard” in rehabilitation with The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, watched all 38 of My Boy Tate’s races on television or in person and gave words to the horse’s thoughts all those years ago: “He was just trying to tell me, ‘Let me do it and I’ll make you proud.’ He knew what to do and look how successful the horse was. I’m so proud of him.”

NOTES: My Boy Tate’s dam Backslash is at Rockridge after recently foaling an Into Mischief filly . . . Nevin is training a 2-year-old half-sister to My Boy Tate by Congrats . . . My Boy Tate is the third-leading earner in Nevin’s training career, behind millionaires By The Moon and Paulassilverlining.

My Boy Tate wins the Hudson Stakes in his 20th appearance at Aqueduct on Empire Showcase Day. NYRA Photo.

Gambling Girl, who represents four generations of homebreds for Gallagher’s Stud, runs in Friday’s 149th Kentucky Oaks. Coady Photography

By Tom Law

Mallory Mort figures by late afternoon Friday he’ll be settled for the day and ready to take in the latest accomplishment for Marlene Brody’s Gallagher’s Stud.

“I’ll probably go down to Mrs. Brody’s house and watch on the couch,” Mort, the longtime manager at Gallagher’s Stud in Ghent, said of Friday’s 149th running of the Kentucky Oaks. “Maybe I’ll have a glass of wine or something.”

The something could be settled not long before 6 p.m. when Gambling Girl, who represents four generations of horses bred, foaled and raised at Gallagher’s, takes on 13 others in the 9-furlong Oaks. She’ll be the first Oaks starter for Gallagher’s, which bred 1986 Epsom Derby starter Allez Milord and 2008 Preakness Stakes third-place finisher Icabad Crane.

“You never know in these races, right?” Mort said when it was suggested champagne could be in order if Gambling Girl scores the upset.

“We’re very excited,” Mort said. “She’s a longshot, but that’s why they run the race, right?”

Gambling Girl is 15-1 on the morning line for the Preakness with Irad Ortiz Jr. named to ride the daughter of Dialed In out of the Empire Maker mare Tulipmania. Todd Pletcher will saddle Gambling Girl for owner Mike Repole’s Repole Stable, with the Hall of Fame trainer looking for his second Oaks win in the last three years and fifth overall.

Ortiz rode Gambling Girl during much of her 2-year-old campaign, which saw her win the Joseph A. Gimma Stakes and finish a close third in the Grade 2 Demoiselle Stakes and earn a finalist nod for champion New York-bred 2-year-old filly.

Gallagher’s Stud sold Gambling Girl through consignor Denali Stud for $200,000 at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga New York-bred yearling sale. Gallagher’s also bred Gambling Girl’s dam, granddam and great-granddam, giving Friday’s $1.25 million Oaks great meaning for the farm founded by Jerry and Marlene Brody and carried forward by Marlene after Jerry’s death in 2001.

“Obviously, it’s very satisfying but these are the kinds of horses the Brodys, and since Mr. Brody died, Mrs. Brody, has tried to breed,” Mort said. “It’s very difficult. We don’t have many foals per year, but these are the kinds of horses we look forward to. We’ve had a horse run in the Epsom Derby before, a horse run in the Preakness, so we’ve had some pretty good horses but never had anybody to run in the Oaks.”

Gallagher’s will have four foals this year and the farm expects seven in 2024. Mort said they generally keep the numbers to around five per year.

Tulipmania produced a filly by Medaglia d’Oro this year, which Mort said “is quite nice,” and she’s also the dam of a 2-year-old Twirling Candy filly named Gallant Greta that sold for $90,000 at last year’s Saratoga New York-bred yearling sale. Gambling Girl’s yearling full brother should follow a similar path to his Oaks-bound sister.

“We’re going to sell in one of the Saratoga sales, we haven’t decided which one we’re going go in yet,” Mort said of either the Select Sale Aug. 7-8 or the NY-bred sale Aug. 13-14. “It might depend on how she does (in the Oaks).”

Gambling Girl’s run in the Oaks, which goes as the 11th race Friday with post time at 5:51 p.m., leads a strong New York-bred contingent in Louisville this weekend.

Robert and Lawana Low’s Classy Edition, a 4-year-old daughter of Classic Empire bred by Chester and Mary Broman, kicks things off when she takes on Secret Oath, Society, Search Results and defending champ Pauline’s Pearl in the Grade 1 La Troienne Stakes at 4:04 p.m. Friday. Unbeaten and a two-time stakes winner at 2 and Grade 2-placed at 3, Classy Edition comes off back-to-back wins including the Grade 3 Royal Delta Stakes in mid-February at Gulfstream Park.

Saturday’s Kentucky Derby Day card marks the return of New York-bred Grade 1 winner Spendarella in the Grade 2 Longines Churchill Distaff Turf Mile Stakes. Gainesway Stable’s homebred 4-year-old daughter of Karakontie is the 7-5 morning-line favorite for the $500,000 grass stakes coming off nearly a nine-month layoff. She’s won four of five starts, including the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks, with the only blemish a runner-up finish in last year’s Group 1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Gambling Girl, a daughter of Dialed In bred by Gallagher’s Stud, gallops this week at Churchill Downs in preparation for Friday’s Kentucky Oaks. Coady Photography.

Repole Stable’s Gambling Girl will fly the flag for the New York breeding program in Friday’s 149th renewal of the $1,250,000 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs.

The 3-year-old daughter of Dialed In drew post position No. 3 in the full field for the 9-furlong Oaks, with four-time Eclipse Award-winning jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. named to ride at 15-1. The Oaks draw attracted 14 runners led by 5-2 morning-line favorite Wet Paint, 4-1 second choice Botanical and 8-1 third pick Southlawn.

Gambling Girl was the second-to-last Oaks runner announced during Monday’s post draw, with only the rail spot and post 3 unoccupied.

“She was one of the last few out so it was either the 1 or 3; we’d obviously prefer 3 over 1,” trainer Todd Pletcher said. “She’s going to need to save some ground all the way around there for us to have a shot.”

Gambling Girl comes into the Oaks with a 2-2-2 record in nine starts and earnings of $257,410. A stakes winner at 2, Gambling Girl finished second in the Busanda Stakes in mid-January at Aqueduct to start her sophomore campaign before a fourth in the Grade 3 Honeybee Stakes at Oaklawn Park and a second in the Grade 3 Gazelle Stakes April 8 at Aqueduct.

Promiseher America won the Gazelle at 25-1, just a half-length ahead of Gambling Girl, and is also in the field for the Oaks.

Bred by and foaled at Gallagher’s Stud in Ghent, Gambling Girl is out of the winning Empire Maker mare Tulipmania. A third-generation homebred for Gallagher’s Stud – founded by Jerry and Marlene Brody and carried on by Marlene after Jerry’s death in 2001 – Tulipmania is the dam of three other winners including stakes-placed Market Bubble and 10-time winner and $228,851-earner Chic N Wilbur.

Mike Repole purchased Gambling Girl for $200,000 out of the Denali Stud consignment at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga New York-bred yearling sale. She broke her maiden in her third start in late August at Saratoga then won the Joseph A. Gimma Stakes over fellow New York-bred fillies a month later. Gambling Girl closed the 2022 season with a fourth in the Maid of the Mist Stakes on Empire Showcase Day.

Tulipmania is also the dam of the 2-year-old Candy filly Gallant Greta, a $90,000 purchase at last year’s Saratoga New York-bred yearling sale; and a yearling full brother to Gambling Girl. She was bred to Medaglia d’Oro in 2022.

Today’s Flavor rolls to front-running victory in Sunday’s Affirmed Success at Aqueduct. NYRA Photo.

Manny Franco learned his lessons last time riding Today’s Flavor.

“He’s a nice horse,” said Franco, the Aqueduct sprint meet’s leading rider after Sunday’s $100,000 Affirmed Success Stakes. “He showed us last time in the Grade 1 Carter with the quick pace in front of him that he still gave it to me in the end and just lost by about a length.”

Today’s Flavor, officially beaten 1 3/4 lengths by Doppelganger that day in the 7-furlong Carter, found things more favorable in the Affirmed Success and rolled to victory shortening up to 6 furlongs. The 5-year-old son of Laoban won for the fifth time in his last six starts for Reddam Racing and trainer George Weaver, and picked up his first stakes win in the field of six.

“Today, with the New York-bred company, I was so confident in him because I knew that he was the best horse in the race,” Franco said. “I just rode him like that and he got it done. It was the plan to just let him roll. It was a sloppy track and I didn’t want to get dirty.”

Franco didn’t come close to being dirty in the Affirmed Success, putting Today’s Flavor on the lead through splits of :22.47 and :45.53 en route to a 3 ¾-length victory over Sheriff Bianco in 1:09.58. Amundson finished another 1 ½ lengths back in third with Scocciatore, My Boy Tate and Lobsta completing the field.

Bred by Joseph Calvo, Today’s Flavor made his stakes debut 22 days ago in the Grade 1 Carter Handicap presented by NYRA Bets. He finished fourth that day, after winning a maiden and three straight allowance races last fall and this past winter at Aqueduct.

The 3-5 favorite in the field of six, Today’s Flavor picked up $55,000 for the Affirmed Success to boost his bankroll to $284,830.

Today’s Flavor is the first stakes winner out of the winning Speightstown mare Evangelical, a half-sioster to stakes-placed Worship the Moon from the family of graded stakes winners Knights Templar and stakes winners For All Seasons and Dial A Song.

Today’s Flavor was an $80,000 RNA at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga New York-bred yearling sale. He’s a half-brother to Garey Park, a New York-bred gelding by Trappe Shot who went 3-6-2 in 21 starts and earned $50,243.