Gam’s Mission Gives DeVaux First Stakes Winner in Regret

Carrying the silks of the famed Lazy F Ranch, Gam's Mission (Noble Mission {GB}) rallied through the final eighth of a mile to take out Saturday's GIII Regret S. at Churchill, giving trainer Cherie DeVaux her first stakes winner since going out on her own.

Bumped soundly at the break by her inside rival Postnup (Declaration of War), the homebred settled slightly worse than mid-division from fifth, as favored Spanish Loveaffair (Karakontie {Jpn}) argued a moderate pace from the fence inside of Postnup, who raced in the two path. Ground-saving around the clubhouse turn, Gam's Mission switched off nicely through the middle stages and traveled three deep down the back of the track in the slipstream of the bald-faced Flown (Kitten's Joy). Urged along three furlongs out, Gam's Mission continued to follow Flown into the stretch, was switched off heels and grabbed a game Spanish Loveaffair in the final 50 yards en route to the victory. Flown held for third ahead of Oyster Box (Tapit), who ran a deceptively good race to be fourth after trailing those soft fractions.

“I'm very pleased with her effort today,” DeVaux, a long-time assistant to Chad Brown, said. “[Jockey] Adam [Beschizza] had her in a really good position throughout. She was a little green coming up the stretch, but she's lightly raced and still figuring it out. The Triple Tiara (in New York) is definitely on the table; it would be great to go compete in that.”

Second behind a 'TDN Rising Star'-worthy maiden-breaker from future GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies' Turf winner Aunt Pearl (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) over this course last September, Gam's Mission came from last to graduate at the Fair Grounds Mar. 21 and was exiting a neck defeat of Flown in a first-level allowance over 8 1/2 furlongs of this turf course May 8.

Pedigree Notes:

Gam's Mission is the fourth graded and black-type winner for her expatriated stallion and is his second stakes-winning 3-year-old filly of 2021, joining GII Appalachian S. heroine and 'TDN Rising Star' Jouster.

The February foal is one of two winners from as many to the races for her dam, a winning daughter of Lazy F Ranch's outstanding turf distaffer Auntie Mame, winner of the GI Flower Bowl Invitational H. and runner-up in the GI QE II Challenge Cup, a race that would certainly be on the radar for Gam's Mission. Auntie Mame's year-older half-sister was Star de Lady Ann (Star de Naskra), who upset Yanks Music (Air Forbes Won) in the 1996 GI Acorn S. at Belmont Park.

Auntie Martha sold for $11,000 in foal to Tonalist at the 2018 Keeneland November sale and produced a colt now named Tricky Lee, who is in training at Emerald Downs. The dam of a yearling filly by Cat Burglar, Auntie Martha foaled a colt by Dads Caps this season.

Saturday, Churchill Downs
REGRET S.-GIII, $150,000, Churchill Downs, 5-29, 3yo, f, 1 1/8mT, 1:51.02, gd.
1–GAM'S MISSION, 118, f, 3, by Noble Mission (GB)
                1st Dam: Auntie Martha, by War Pass
                2nd Dam: Auntie Mame, by Theatrical (Ire)
                3rd Dam: Lady Vixen, by Sir Ivor
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. O/B-Lazy F
Ranch (KY); T-Cherie DeVaux; J-Adam Beschizza. $90,210.
Lifetime Record: 4-3-1-0, $201,258. Werk Nick Rating: C. Click
for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Spanish Loveaffair, 118, f, 3, Karakontie (Jpn)–Spanish
Bunny, by Unusual Heat. ($35,000 Ylg '19 KEESEP). O-Eclipse
Thoroughbred Partners, Michael Hernon & Gary Barber;
B-Gainesway Thoroughbreds Ltd (KY); T-Mark Casse. $29,100.
3–Flown, 118, f, 3, Kitten's Joy–Rumbaua, by Bernstein.
($90,000 Ylg '19 KEESEP; $90,000 2yo '20 OBSAPR). O-Marc
Detampel; B-John R Cummins, Kenneth L & Sarah K Ramsey
(KY); T-Brendan P Walsh. $14,550.
Margins: 3/4, HD, 3/4. Odds: 6.10, 1.40, 5.20.
Also Ran: Oyster Box, Barista, Munnyfor Ro, Line Dancing, Postnup. Scratched: Saranya. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

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Gam’s Mission Gives Trainer Cherie DeVaux First Graded Victory In Regret

Carrying jockey Adam Beschizza and the yellow and black silks of Lazy F Ranch made famous by Hall of Fame gelding Forego in the 1970s, Gam's Mission rallied down the middle of the Churchill Downs turf course in Louisville, Ky., to win Saturday's Grade 3 Regret Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. The win gave Cherie DeVaux her initial graded stakes victory since taking out her trainer's license in 2018.

A daughter of the Galileo stallion Noble Mission (a full brother to Frankel), Gam's Mission covered 1 1/8 miles on good turf in 1:51.02, winning by three-quarters of a length. Spanish Loveaffair, the 7-5 favorite, finished second after battling on the front end with Postnup for much of the race. Flown finished third, with Oyster Box fourth in the field of eight, followed by Barista, Munnyfor Ro, Line Dancing and Postnup. Saranya scratched.

Gam's Mission raced in fifth early after being bumped at the start by Postnup, who veered outwardly from the number six post position and then raced to the front to secure an early advantage over Spanish Loveaffair. Postnup went the opening quarter mile in :24.55 and the half in :49.56 under pressure from the favorite, who put Postnup away after six furlongs in 1:14.27.

Beschizza swung Gam's Mission out for a clear run at the top of the stretch, battled with Spanish Loveaffair and Flown inside the eighth pole after a mile in 1:38.90, then gradually edged away approaching the wire. Flown was beaten just a head for second.

The win was the third consecutive triumph for Gam's Mission, whose only defeat came at the hands of eventual G1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner Aunt Pearl in a Sept. 1, 2020, maiden race at Churchill Downs. She won her 2021 debut in a maiden race at Fair Grounds on March 21, then came back for an allowance victory at Churchill on May 8.

Gam's Mission was produced from the War Pass mare, Auntie Martha, a Lazy F Ranch homebred presumably named after Martha Gerry, who campaigned three-time Horse of the Year Forego and was honored as an Exemplar of Racing at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., just prior to her death in 2007. Gerry was the aunt of William S. Farish, who stood Noble Mission at his Lane's End prior to the horse's export to Japan.

Cornelia Corbett, the daughter of Martha Gerry, continues to race a handful of horses in the name of Lazy F Ranch. Her son, Rick, is a partner in Gam's Mission, the first horse he bought into, according to Bill Farish, son of the Lane's End owner.

Cherie DeVaux, right, in the winner's circle with husband David Ingordo and jockey Adam Beschizza following the Regret

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Looking for a Mayo Miracle

Joe Trawitzki is a trainer's dream.

As an owner, he takes the bad news with the good, he always puts the horse first and of course, he shows up at the barn with two dozen doughnuts in tow.

But while Joe is eagerly anticipating the debut of his 2-year-old filly this year, he's not sure if he will have the opportunity to see her reach the starting gate.

On May 21, 2020, the Wisconsin native went to the hospital for what he thought was a simple gallbladder surgery, but in the operating room, the doctors discovered that his liver was riddled with cancer.

“They weren't sure where the cancer came from, but they knew it was advanced and they knew it was stage four,” Joe explained. “This was during COVID, so I spent the night by myself in the hospital  afterwards. The next morning we met with a local oncologist and she's a wonderful person, very up-front, and I asked her if she were me, what would she do. She said, 'I would take the next six months and prepare to die.'”

In Joe's mind, that wasn't a good option. He and his wife Alyssa were newlyweds and Joe wanted more time to be a husband, so he gave up his law practice and started chemotherapy.

“It was really weird because you think, 'What am I going to do with myself for the next couple months, years or whatever time I have left?' You've got to find something to focus on or else you just sit and look at the walls and drive yourself crazy.”

With no job to keep himself otherwise distracted, Joe turned to the sport he fell in love with as a child.

“My grandmother and aunt took me to Arlington when I was five,” he recalled. “They told me to pick out either a name or a number to bet, and at the end of the day they gave me two one-dollar bills. I thought I was rich. From there I was hooked.”

Since then, Joe has been checking off items on his horse racing bucket list. First he attended the Kentucky Derby, then he got himself a claimer and eventually he joined a few partnerships.

“One thing leads to another and the next thing you know, you have 10 horses at the track and it just kind of grows out of control,” he admitted with a laugh.

One of his favorite racing moments  was when one of his syndicates had the opportunity to run at Royal Ascot.

“I had been dating Alyssa for about six months and I asked her if she would like to go to London. She was like, 'In a year?' And I said, 'No, in three weeks.' I hadn't even met her parents yet. So she thought I was crazy, but we got to Ascot and she loved it. We had the best weekend ever.”

Their filly, Thora Barber (GB) (Rip Van Winkle {Ire}), ran sixth in the 2016 Chesham S.

“We were the first race, so we were in the paddock as the Queen came by in her carriage,” Joe remembered. “This was Alyssa's first time at a track so I had to explain to her that not every time was going to be like this. When I went to place my bet, I forgot about the conversion from pounds to dollars and I had to run to the ATM. It was a mess, but it was a lot of fun.”

That event helped Alyssa fall in love with racing too, and the couple got married at Keeneland three years ago.

When Joe received the diagnosis last year, he was able to get into the Mayo Clinic in Arizona. There they discovered that Joe was living with pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

“You look at the stats of pancreatic cancer and it's not good,” Joe said. “But when we met with each of the doctors at the Mayo Clinic I would say, 'We're from Wisconsin and we're looking for a Mayo miracle. While meeting with the third or fourth doctor, we started talking about horses and I told him we were going to buy a horse and we were going to name it Mayo Miracle.”

He decided to venture from under the umbrella of racing partnerships to go out and find Mayo Miracle on his own. Remembering a TDN article on Cherie DeVaux, he reached out to the up-and-coming trainer.

Joe and Alyssa in the sales ring at Keeneland on their wedding day. “It's a very, very special place,” Joe said of the Lexington track. |photo courtesy Joe Trawitzki

“She had one quote I'll never forget, she said, 'I'll always be truthful with my owners,'” Joe said. “At that point, I'm trying to transition to where Alyssa can take over the racing if she wants to stay in it, so I wanted to hook her up with someone we could trust. I called Cherie and she told me that not all horses are racehorses, so she wasn't going to let me waste money to pay my bills if they couldn't run.”

So off they all went to the Keeneland September Sale. There Joe learned that DeVaux's husband was bloodstock agent David Ingordo. But even with Ingordo and DeVaux both scouring the sales grounds, they walked away empty-handed.

“The difficulty was that David's standards are so high and he usually is getting a bit higher clientele than us, but to his credit, he would not adjust his eye and he would not accept any faults,” Joe said. “He was looking for the perfect horse for us, but the problem was we couldn't afford the perfect horse. When we walked away from the sale, the look on David's face was so hurt. He was so ashamed and sorry he couldn't buy us a horse, but I told him it was part of the game, the prices were high and I had learned a lot.”

DeVaux and Ingordo put their heads together afterwards and then reached out to Joe to ask if he might be willing to form a 50-50 partnership with them.

“I was just in awe because we had just met, you know, and with where they're at in the industry, it was a real honor to partner with them,” Joe said.

So with an upgraded budget, DeVaux and Ingordo attended the Fasig-Tipton October Sale and landed on an Astern (Aus) yearling out of Short Squeeze (Lemon Drop Kid). The filly's dam was a half-sister to graded stakes winners Last Gunfighter (First Samurai) and Tiger Moth (Street Sense).

Joe at his first Keeneland September Sale. “I didn't know a lot, but I knew enough to be dangerous,” he said afterwards. | photo courtesy Joe Trawitzki

Their $65,000 purchase was sent to Mayberry Farm in Ocala for her early training and arrived at DeVaux's barn at Keeneland last month.

“She's been pretty straightforward,” DeVaux reported. “She's a cool, calm customer, she doesn't do anything wrong and she is learning her job as a racehorse pretty well. With all my 2-year-olds we give them as much time as they need, but hopefully by the middle to end of summer, she'll be getting to the races.”

When Joe explained his thoughts on a name for the filly, the idea resonated with DeVaux.

“When Joe first came to visit the filly, he was telling me how important it was for him to get his message out in naming this filly to pay respect to the Mayo Clinic and bring awareness to pancreatic cancer,” DeVaux said. “My older sister actually had pancreatic cancer 20 plus years ago and she survived, which is a very rare instance in this type of cancer.”

“Talking to Cherie, with the stories we share, it's like this horse is just meant to be the Mayo miracle,” Joe added. “When you think about it, we're looking for a Mayo miracle, we're looking for hope for me, but this horse is so much more. We hope she continues to grow, win some races, and that we have a lot of fun with her.”

As Joe nears the one-year mark since his diagnosis, as well as six months past the time frame doctors originally gave him to live, he is busy planning for Mayo Miracle's first start.

“One of our goals with Mayo Miracle is that we want her to be a party horse,” he said. “If we can get all my friends to the track to watch, maybe it brings in a few more fans to the industry. Who knows where it's going to go? Whatever this horse is for other people, that's wonderful. Hopefully she is successful. Worst- case scenario, we bought a horse and had some fun.”

Joe said that he and Alyssa are making plans to design Mayo Miracle's silks to display a purple cancer ribbon. A significant amount of her earnings will go towards both research at Mayo Clinic, as well as the Hope Fund at Mayo Clinic, a fund set aside for those who cannot afford travel costs and medical fees associated with treatment at the medical center.

Joe also credits his home hospital in Green Bay for what they've done for him, joking that his next horse will be raced in their honor and named 'Ain't Dead Yet.'

Born and raised in Wisconsin, Joe is also an avid Green Bay Packers fan. | photo courtesy Joe Trawitzki

“I guess the things you learn suffering with pancreatic cancer is that everyone is different, don't pay attention to the odds and you have to win the day,” he said. “Whatever today brings, you have to do something positive, whether that means just getting to the kitchen to eat dinner or getting to the track to watch your horse, you have to win that day.

He continued, “For the people in the support system of someone with cancer, the thing you want them to know is that if you're there in the beginning, stay with me until the end. People say, 'I've got your back' or, 'You're going to fight this,' and yeah, we're going to do it, but we need to do it together.”

Under DeVaux's watchful eye, Mayo Miracle is now starting to put in her first breezes at Keeneland.

“I really want this filly to be something special for Joe and Alyssa,” DeVaux said. “It's too early right now to tell her level of ability. This filly has a purpose as a racehorse, but she also has a purpose for spreading a message and a story. If somebody is following this and it helps them in some way, maybe they're going through the same thing Joe is going through, they can have a connection with something other than an illness.”

In a text Joe sent to DeVaux on his way home from visiting Mayo Miracle last month at Keeneland, he reflected on what the journey with this filly has meant to him already.

“It's crazy because the idea behind Mayo Miracle was just a saying to the doctors that turned into the thought of getting a party horse that friends could enjoy and it could become something to keep me positive, distract from the negative and provide hope that this cancer is survivable so I can watch this horse and buy others. I really am not sure what this horse will mean to others or how she will perform on the track, but I hope it will be fun and that I am here to see it.”

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Our Super Freak Takes On Red-Hot Lake Avenue In Sunday’s Ruffian

Multiple graded stakes-placed Our Super Freak, who has tackled the heaviest hitters in her division, seeks a breakthrough victory against an all stakes-winning field in Sunday's 43rd running of the Grade 2, $200,000 Ruffian for older fillies and mares at Belmont Park.

The one-turn mile over the main track honors Stuart Janney, Jr.'s late dual champion filly, who is recognized as one of the greatest distaffers of all time. Her notable Grade 1-winning accomplishments include triumphs in the Spinaway, Mother Goose, Acorn, and Coaching Club American Oaks with most of her victories being earned by wide margins. Trained by Frank Whitley, Jr., Ruffian earned a spot in the Hall of Fame in 1976 and is buried in the infield at Belmont Park.

Owned by Paul Winandy's LBD Stable and David Ingordo, the husband of trainer Cherie DeVaux, Our Super Freak made both of her 2021 starts at Oaklawn Park, where she finished second in the Pippin on January 23 and against two-time champion Monomoy Girl in the Grade 3 Bayakoa on February 28.

“This is my first time running her a one-turn mile which is what I think she wants to do,” DeVaux said. “She can run the two-turn mile, since she has good position early and tactical speed, but I'm very interested to see how she handles the one-turn mile at Belmont.”

Originally campaigned on the Mid-Atlantic circuit by Jamie Ness, Our Super Freak notched her only stakes victory in the restricted Shine Again in September 2019 at Laurel Park, marking her final start for Ness.

“We're always looking for prospects that could be appealing as a broodmare and she has a really nice physical,” DeVaux said. “She already had some black type on her, and we were looking to see if putting a horse like her in our program would help increase her value. We looked at her physical and past performances and she checked all the boxes. She's a strong, gorgeous filly with some good form.”

Last season, Our Super Freak garnered graded stakes black type when finishing second to subsequent New Jersey Horse of the Year Horologist in the Grade 3 Molly Pitcher in July at Monmouth Park and third to Letruska in the Grade 3 Shuvee in August at Saratoga.

“She's been unlucky having faced a lot of extremely nice fillies and mares like Letruska and Monomoy Girl,” DeVaux said. “She's faced a lot of good horses. We haven't backed down or been afraid of anyone. We're trying to find a spot to give her the best opportunity to get a graded stakes win.”

DeVaux said she is looking forward to possibly training a sibling of Our Super Freak in the near future, after her husband purchased the mare's dam Thatcher.

“When we had this filly, my husband found the broodmare. She was baren last year when we got her and they bred her to Catalina Cruiser, so she now has a beautiful Catalina Cruiser colt,” DeVaux said.

Breaking from post 3, Our Super Freak will be ridden by Jose Ortiz.

Our Super Freak's largest obstacle to victory comes from Godolphin homebred Lake Avenue, who has done no wrong in her pair of starts this season for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott.

The 4-year-old daughter of Tapit out of Grade 1-winner Seventh Street broke a step slow in her 2021 debut going seven furlongs at Gulfstream Park, but was nevertheless all class winning by 4 ½ lengths in a February 3 allowance optional claimer.

She displayed another open-length triumph when returning to stakes company with vigor in the Heavenly Prize Invitational on April 3 at Aqueduct. The pair of wins were the quite the turnaround for Lake Avenue, who had not tasted victory in four starts last year. During her juvenile campaign, Lake Avenue broke her maiden second out by 12 ¾ lengths at Aqueduct before a four-length win in the Grade 2 Demoiselle at the Big A, winning both races in frontrunning fashion.

Lake Avenue breaks from post 4 under Junior Alvarado.

Gibberish, a dark bay Lea filly trained by Saffie Joseph, Jr., arrives at the Ruffian off a fourth-place finish in the Grade 3 Royal Delta on February 20. Breaking alertly when second from the rail, Gibberish initially displayed her usual frontrunning tactics, but was challenged on the front end by graded stakes winner Mrs. Danvers and gave way around the far turn, just missing third by a half-length.

Gibberish won her three starts prior, with all victories taking place at different tracks. After a five-length triumph travelling the one-turn mile last September at Gulfstream Park, Gibberish won going the same distance at Gulfstream Park West before shipping to Delta Downs for a victory in the Treasure Chest on November 27 over a sloppy and sealed track.

Bred in Kentucky by Dell Ridge Farm, Gibberish was selected as a weanling from the St. George Sales consignment at the 2017 Keeneland November Sale, where she was bought for $230,000. She is out of the Pulpit mare Nippy, who is a half-sister to stakes-winners Economic Model, Your Love and Well Monied.

Gibberish, breaking from post 6, will be ridden by Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano who targets his third Ruffian win.

Rounding out the field is Water White [post 2, Irad Ortiz, Jr.], a last out four-length winner of an optional-claiming mile, who captured the 2020 Busher Invitational at Aqueduct, Saguaro Row [post 5, Trevor McCarthy], a two-time stakes winner going one turn at the Big A, as well as stakes-winner Vault [post 1, Joel Rosario].

The Ruffian is slated as Race 8 on Sunday's nine-race card. First post is 1:00 p.m. Eastern.

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