Richland Hills and John Kuehl’s Secret Gypsy overcame a traffic-filled trip to win the $150,700 Endine Stakes (gr. III) (VIDEO) Sept. 11 at Delaware Park. The win should vault her into the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Sprint at Churchill Downs later this season.
With Jamie Theriot aboard, the 5-year-old daughter of Sea of Secrets was boxed in during the early stages, checked while leaving the turn, and finally got through along the rail before notching a one-length victory. Before declaring the race official, Secret Gypsy survived a claim of foul by Dana Whitney aboard the fourth-place finisher Our Khrysty.
Secret Gypsy returned $2.80, $2.20, and $2.10 as the favorite in the field of seven. The Kentucky-bred is conditioned by Ronny Werner. She covered the six furlongs over a fast main track in 1:10.23.
Ivory Empress and Rosie Napravnik finished second, a half length in front of Mindy Sue.
All Giving, with Jonathan Joyce aboard, cut early fractions of :22.50 and :45.62 before fading to seventh.
With the victory, Secret Gypsy recorded her third straight victory to raise her career mark to eight wins from 17 starts with earnings of $596,926. Previously, she won the Honorable Miss (gr. II) at Saratoga on Aug. 8.
The winner was bred by Norman Cheng and is out of the Rahy mare Miss Utada.
“The plan was to bring her back in the early stages to save some of her speed for the stretch run, but we were not expecting for her to have that kind of a rough trip,” said Werner. “And then we had the claim of foul to worry about. Fortunately, she overcame and once again proved how much of a warrior she is. It looks like our next stop will be the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (Nov. 6 at Churchill Downs).”