Shotgun Gulch wasn’t given much of a chance in Thursday’s $300,000 Grade 1
Madison
at Keeneland, but put in a sustained run down the center of the track to score
by a head over Amen Hallelujah on the wire. With Garrett Gomez aboard, the
chestnut lass ran seven furlongs in 1:24 while trying the synthetic Polytrack
for the first time, and paid $25.40, $9.20 and $6.20 as the 11-1 sixth choice in
the nine-filly field.
“Turning for home, I thought I was going to run on by them,” Gomez said. “She
started (taking the lead) a couple of times, and Johnny’s filly (Amen
Hallelujah, ridden by John Velazquez) fought back. Right towards the wire, my
filly switched leads and was halfway looking around but she ran really good.
“I had a good feeling in the post parade. She’s not very big. Sometimes those
little horses travel really well on a synthetic racetrack, and she did so
today.”
Owned, bred and trained by C.R. Trout, Shotgun Gulch settled into last while
Dr. Zic led the field through splits of :22 1/5 and :45 3/5 on the backstretch.
My Jen and Kitty in a Tizzy were keeping in close attendance to the front runner
at this time, but began dropping back by the time Dr. Zic reached three-quarters
in 1:10 4/5.
Amen Hallelujah came three wide on the turn, but was then angled back toward
the inside after being steadied entering the stretch. She took command of the
race and momentarily appeared a clear winner, but Gomez had swung Shotgun Gulch
five wide leaving the turn and those two closed like a shot on the outside. They
got up just in time to take the win over 2-1 favorite Amen Hallelujah, who had 2
3/4 lengths to spare on Dr. Zic.
“I was hoping that when the other horse (Shotgun Gulch) came to her she would
go on again, for her to pay attention again,” Velazquez said. “It just happened
that when she was coming back the wire came first.”
Evening Jewel, the second choice at 5-2, was another head back in fourth,
while My Jen, Decelerator, Kitty in a Tizzy, Fascinatin’ Rhythm and
Tremendamente Loca completed the order of finish.
“It seemed like she was struggling with the track,” said Victor Espinoza
aboard Evening Jewel. “She was OK when she was in the bridle, but when I asked
her to run, she was spinning her wheels and she got tired late.”
Shotgun Gulch had faced graded company only three times prior to Thursday,
finishing sixth in last year’s Grade 3 Iowa Oaks, a distant third in the Grade 1
La Brea in December, and most recently weakening to fifth in the March 19 Grade
3 Azeri. She entered the Madison a four-time stakes winner, taking the Dixie
Belle at Oaklawn Park and the E.L. Gaylord Memorial at Remington Park against
open company, and the Oklahoma Classics Filly & Mare Sprint and Oklahoma
Classics Lassie while facing fellow Oklahoma breds. The Madison is by far her
biggest victory to date and boosted her career record to 17-7-1-4, $478,146.
For Trout, it was his first Keeneland stakes victory and first Grade 1
victory. He now plans to ship Shotgun Gulch on Friday morning to Churchill
Downs, where she will be pointed to the Humana Distaff (G1) at seven furlongs on
May 7.
“I’ve got a good team, and it was a team effort to get this filly here,” he
said. “She performed today.”
The four-year-old miss is out of the winning Boston Harbor mare Rosieville,
whose first registered foal is the stakes-placed Sundayville Break. The
10-year-old mare has since produced an unraced juvenile filly named Scat Baby
and a yearling colt called Scat’s Your Daddy, both by Scat Daddy.
Rosieville is herself a daughter of Shotgun Romance, making her a half-sister
to Grade 3 winner Maysville Slew as well as Momie Marie, the dam of multiple
stakes victress Cherylville Slew. This is the same female family as 2008
champion male sprinter Benny the Bull, 1986 Canadian champion two-year-old colt
Blue Finn, Grade 3 heroine Fancy Ribbons and, farther back, 1978 champion
sprinter Dr. Patches.