Shotgun Gulch ambushes Madison

Shotgun Gulch (outside) just got the best of Amen Hallelujah (Matt Wooley/EquiSport Photos)

SHOTGUN GULCH (Thunder Gulch) wasn’t given much of a chance in Thursday’s
$300,000
Madison S. (G1) at Keeneland, but put in a sustained run down the center of
the track to score by a head over Amen Hallelujah (Montbrook) 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 (Milwaukee Brew) led the field through splits of :22 1/5 and :45 3/5 on
the backstretch. My Jen (Fusaichi Pegasus) and Kitty in a Tizzy (Tiznow) 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.

Shotgun Gulch earned her first graded win in the Madison (Wendy Wooley/EquiSport Photos)

Shotgun Gulch had faced graded company only three times prior to Thursday,
finishing sixth in last year’s Iowa Oaks (G3), a distant third in the La Brea S.
(G1) in December, and most recently weakening to fifth in the March 19 Azeri S.
(G3). She entered the Madison a four-time stakes winner, taking the Dixie Belle
S. at Oaklawn Park and the E.L. Gaylord Memorial S. at Remington Park against
open company, and the Oklahoma Classics Filly & Mare Sprint S. and Oklahoma
Classics Lassie S. 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 (Sunday Break
[Jpn]). 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.