Pretty Mischievous scores pretty upset in Kentucky Oaks
When Brendan Walsh got to Churchill Downs on Friday morning, he faced the prospect of saddling the Kentucky Oaksstarter drawn widest of all in a field of 14.
One of Walsh’s fellow trainers, and one who knows his way around big races at Churchill, told him he had been there, done that and won that.
“It’s funny, I met Wayne Lukas in the chute this morning and he said to me, ‘You’re drawn wide, aren’t you?’” Walsh said after his Pretty Mischievous stayed up late to take the Oaks. “I said, ‘Yeah,’ and he said, ‘I won four Derbies and three of them were drawn 15 and up.’
“He said, ‘Let her break out of there and get her feet under her and let her take him into the race.’ (Jockey Tyler Gaffalione) pretty much told me that’s what he was going to do before the race. It was well-rehearsed.”
Pretty Mischievous overcame the no. 14 hole Friday, winning the Grade 1, $1.25 million Oaks by a neck over a rallying Gambling Girl. The Godolphin homebred filly covered 1 1/8 miles in 1:49.77, returning $22.74 on a $2 win bet.
The Kentucky Oaks win on a sun-splashed, 77-degree afternoon was the first for Godolphin, Gaffalione and Walsh.
“This is the kind of thing you dream about, to win a Grade 1, especially the Oaks at Churchill Downs, it’s a long way from Cork in Ireland,” said Walsh, a 49-year-old native of Ireland. “It’s indescribable, it’s exactly what we’re here for, and why these guys (Godolphin) breed these good horses, and why everybody works so hard.”
Pretty Mischievous emerged as a contender in the 3-year-old filly division this winter at Fair Grounds. She won the Untapable Stakes in December, then bested odds-on favorite Hoosier Philly there two months later in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes (G2).
The Into Mischief filly went off at 6-5 odds March 25 in the Fair Grounds Oaks (G2) and moved from third to first in the stretch but was passed at the sixteenth pole by winner Southlawn.
Walsh added blinkers off that loss. Noting the way she failed to hold the lead last out in New Orleans, he thought an equipment change would help her focus at the end of the race.
“She just has that cruising speed and it’s like it comes so easy to her,” Walsh said. “I think the blinkers got her to hang in there a little bit more today.”
Gaffalione and Pretty Mischievous loomed four-wide through the early stages of the Kentucky Oaks, sitting fourth through the first six furlongs. Up front, 17-1 shot Flying Connection set factions of 23.07, 46.96 and 1:11.28.Rounding the far turn, Pretty Mischievous cleared Flying Connection and fellow front-runners Defining Purpose and Dorth Vader.
The Todd Pletcher-trained Gambling Girl made Gaffalione keep Pretty Mischievous to task with a late rally in the center of the track. Unlike her last race at the Fair Grounds, the Godolphin filly held on this time to score the win.
“I knew they were going to be coming,” Gaffalione said. “I let her out a little bit and she responded great, finished the job really well.”
Walsh’s relationship with Godolphin goes back to his time working with the operation’s Dubai string as an exercise rider. He first saddled a North American starter in 2011 and has climbed the money list over the last decade, continuing a fruitful relationship with the owner-breeder.
Pretty Mischievous follows Maxfield and Santin as Walsh-trained, Godolphin-owned Grade 1 winners. Maxfield was a prospect for the 2020 Kentucky Derby but injuries sidetracked his route to that year’s late-summer Run for the Roses.
“All of our trainers all do a great job,” said Michael Banahan, director of bloodstock for Godolphin USA. “And I think is very deserving for Brendan and his team. They put in a lot of long hours. They work very hard.
“We had a nice colt a few years ago that we thought would be a Derby horse. Ended up having a few hurdles down the road. Didn't quite make the Derby. So hopefully, winning the Oaks here today makes up for Maxfield not getting his chance in the Derby.”
Gambling Girl finished second Friday for trainer Todd Pletcher at 13-1 odds. She flew under the radar at the windows off a second-place finish April 8 at Aqueduct in the Gazelle Stakes (G3) but closed from 11th to nearly win.
The Kentucky Oaks runner-up effort came one day before Gambling Girl’s connections – Pletcher, jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. and owner Repole Stable – team up Saturday with Kentucky Derby favorite Forte.
“We just missed,” Ortiz said. “Two more jumps and we would have got it.”
Rounding out the superfecta were two of trainer Brad Cox’s three entries, The Alys Look in third and 7-5 favorite Wet Paint in fourth. Cox’s third entry, Botanical, settled for 13th of 14.
“It’s always hard when you have a heavy favorite and you can’t get the job done,” Cox said. “But at least two of three ran well.”
The full order of finish, first through 14th was as follows: Pretty Mischievous, Gambling Girl, The Alys Look, Wet Paint, Dorth Vader, Flying Connection, Defining Purpose, Mimi Kakushi, Wonder Wheel, Southlawn, Affirmative Lady, And Tell Me Nolies, Botanical and Promiseher America.
