Ron Correll
Senior columnist

ARCADIA, Calif., — Dearest Trickski was the quickest from the gate in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint and set murderous fractions of :22.06 for the quarter and :44.02 seconds for the half-mile and it became her undoing in the seven-furlong race on Friday at Santa Anita Park.

Indian Blessing was applying the pressure with Dream Rush a close-up third. The heat of the early fractions started to wilt Dearest Trickski as they rounded the turn and Indian Blessing pounced at the quarter-pole and looked to be pulling away.

But the cavalry was coming. Ventura and Intangaroo were swinging wide and Ventura was going the better of the two. Ventura caught a stubborn Indian Blessing at the eighth pole and started to pull away to win by five lengths in a time of 1:19.90. Indian Blessing held for second, with Zaftig third and Miraculous Miss fourth. The time was one-hundredth of second off the track record.

Jockey Garrett Gomez  was just waiting to pull the trigger on Ventura. “She ran effortlessly.  She’s the kind of filly that, once she makes the lead, will kind of pull up a little.  When we went by those horses, she was just cruising.  She’s very tactical. 

“Around the three-eighths I had edged her out a little and she got into another gear.  Down the stretch, I got into her a little (whip) to keep her focused on the race.”

Trainer Robert Frankel was worried after the start. “When I heard that she broke slow, I was a little worried but when she was running on the turn, I felt a lot better.  She showed a great, great turn of foot and she really likes the synthetic track.  We didn’t want to move too soon into a very quick pace.  He (Garrett Gomez) said he just waited until he felt she was ready to give it to him.  When he let her run, she just exploded.”

John Velazquez, who was on Indian Blessing, had no complaints. “Perfect trip. She broke really well, I let the other horse go, and sat right outside of her. I even eased away from the other horses. I got head and head with the horse on the lead, and down the stretch, straightened out, and she came running. That horse still ran right by me. I couldn’t believe it. I was running too. Wow, man. I knew the horse on the lead is really fast. I wanted to let her go, and I was waiting for someone else to go with them, but they didn’t show up, so I just sat off of her on the backside real easy. We ran our race today. She (winner Ventura) just ran a little better.”

Trainer Bob Baffert also was proud of Indian Blessing. “She ran a great race.  She did all she could but the winner just ran a tremendous race, almost a track record. (Bobby) Frankel was right.  He was telling me all week that he was going to get me and he did.”

Intangaroo, who was moving with Ventura, had more traffic problems according to her jockey Alonso Quinonez. “I was stuck down on the inside and I had to wait and wait and wait. With 14 horses, they all get packed down on the side and I just had to wait. I finally got to swing out on the turn and she gave me her run.”

Trainer Gary Sherlock also agreed about Intangaroo’s trip. “I would have liked her to run better. It’s been a good ride. It was a tough trip with where she had to come from.”