Pedigree Partners LLC's Shifty She seized control at the start of Saturday's $75,000 Ginger Punch Stakes at Gulfstream Park in Hallendale Beach, Fla. and held on tenaciously to capture the 1 1/16-mile turf stakes for Florida-bred fillies and mares.
The 5-year-old daughter of Gone Astray collected a $25,000 win-only bonus available to FTBOA Florida Sires Stakes-nominated starters in addition to the $45,105 winner's share of the purse.
While capturing her second consecutive stakes and winning her fifth race in her last six starts, the 4-5 favorite set a pressured pace while posting quarter-mile fractions of :23.77, :47.15, 1:10.09, and 1:33.93 on her way to a final clocking of 1:40.13.
“She loves to win. She definitely has the will to win,” trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said. “You can see that. If you look at her record, even before we got her. You can't teach that.”
Despite the race-long pressure, she had more than enough energy in reserve to hold off the late rally of Sun Summers by a half-length under Edwin Gonzalez, who earlier in the day notched his 1,500th career win.
“This is a nice filly. She doesn't have a problem going to the front or staying in the middle of the pace. I let her settle on the lead today and she went nice and easy. She likes to fight,” Gonzalez said.
After finishing fourth in her career debut, Shifty She won three straight races, including an open allowance at Gulfstream in December 2019, before going to the sidelines for 16 months. Transferred to Joseph following her hiatus, she set a pressured pace before weakening to finish fourth in her April 9 return to action. Chris Pallas and George Klein's homebred mare came back to capture the May 15 Powder Break, defeating open company while rallying from just off the pace.
“You can't train that. She always finds a bit more. She knows where the wire is. Even in the race off the layoff when she got beat, she dueled the whole way and still hung in there,” Joseph said. “I think after this we'll try to find a graded stakes somewhere and at least give her a chance to win a graded stakes.”
The Joseph-trained Lovely Luvy rallied from far back to finish third, three-quarters of a length behind Sun Summers.
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