Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint 2021 Entries: Who can stop Gamine?

Gamine, Gamine, Gamine. She opens as the shortest priced horse on the book for any Breeders' Cup race this year. Can anyone beat her? We'll handicap the race later in the week but here is an initial overview following the Post Position draw at Del Mar on Monday...

There are 14 races over Breeders’ Cup weekend at Del Mar this year and the one race where value will be the toughest is undoubtedly the Filly & Mare Sprint. At the time of writing I thought this might be the only one of the 14 where a horse goes off at odds on but Echo Zulu may well do so as well in the Juvenile Fillies if the Morning Line odds are a good indicator of what the market will do and maybe Life is Good as well on Saturday in the Dirt Mile.

The reason is the small field of seven is headed by a genuine superstar. Gamine has only tasted defeat once and that was around two turns at the Kentucky Oaks in 2020. Since then she has flat out dominated the female sprinting division and is the defending champion of this race - having won the 2020 edition over at Keeneland.

In 2021, she has won four straight across four different tracks. One small note of caution comes from the fact the daughter of Into Mischief has yet to race at Del Mar. Having won at seven different tracks however in her career, that is just a small note of caution. She’s a very short 3-5 on the Morning Line.

Some handicappers will no doubt bet against Gamine. For some reason - possibly the Bob Baffert factor - she isn’t as respected by some as she deserves to be. If she is to be challenged - that challenge is likely to come from Bella Sofia. This three-year-old put up a 102 Beyer when winning the Grade I Test at Saratoga in August and has people thinking she can really give Gamine a run for her money. At this point it would be fair to say I’m sceptical. The 5-2 price though seems to show that the oddsmaker is expecting support for her.

Four-time Graded Stakes winner Ce Ce is the third of the potential winners if you are looking solely at the Morning Line odds. This five-year-old has won twice so far this year but finished third to Gamine in the Grade I Ballerina at Saratoga. She opens at 4-1.

Our selections for the race will come later in the week but this isn’t one where you have to think long and hard about where I’m leaning. I’ve been a fan of Gamine for an awfully long time and I’m not about to jump off that particular bandwagon.

Our racecard is at the top of the page with all the M/L odds and check back later in the week for J.N. Campbell’s preview along with my thoughts for the race.