Margo’s Gift shipped to New Jersey from Washington State and got the money at 26-1 in the $250,000 Favorite Trick Breeders’ Cup Stakes Oct. 26 at Monmouth Park.
Owned by Kenny Alhadeff and trained by Doris Harwood, Margo’s Gift, a three-time stakes winner in Washington, rallied from eighth at the half-mile mark in the six-furlong stakes for 2-year-olds and accelerated along the rail to be along in time under jockey Ricky Frazier.
Margo’s Gift won by 1 1/2 lengths over Jazz Nation, who had the lead in the stretch. Favored Lantana Mob was a nose back in third.
Fractions for the race, run on a sloppy track, were :21.54 for the opening quarter-mile, :44.43 for the half-mile, and :57.11 for five furlongs. Margo’s Gift finished up in 1:10.19.
Bred in Washington by Mrs. William Nelson, Margo's Gift, by Polish Gift out of the Knights Choice mare Burgundy Jones, finished third in the Gottstein Futurity at Emerald Downs in his last start. The winner, 2-year-old filly Smarty Deb, will take her four-for-four record into the Oct. 27 Grey Goose Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (gr. I).
Smarty Deb is owned by Northwest Farms and trained by Harwood, who is based at Emerald Downs.
Margo’s Gift paid $55.40 to win in the Favorite Trick. The gelding, who hadn’t ventured away from Emerald Downs before his trip to Monmouth, is now three-for-three at six furlongs; in one of those, a stakes, he was placed first.