LOUISVILLE, Ky. _ In the head-to-head showdown that was to be the Kentucky Oaks on Friday at a fanless Churchill Downs, let the record show that second choice Swiss Skydiver beat favorite Gamine.
Trouble was neither could beat Shedaresthedevil.
Brad Cox is proving to be the king of the Kentucky Oaks, as the Louisville trainer won his second Kentucky Oaks in the past three years as Shedaresthedevil pulled off the upset in the 146th running of the $1.25 million Grade 1 race for 3-year-old fillies.
Cox and jockey Florent Geroux teamed up to win the 2018 Kentucky Oaks with the brilliant Monomoy Girl, who Friday won the Grade 1 $500,000 La Troienne at Churchill in the race just before the Kentucky Oaks.
"With Monomoy Girl, there was a lot of pressure in that race," Cox said of the La Troienne preceding the Oaks. "When you've got a 15-1 shot in a Grade 1 there's no pressure. But coming into the race we thought we had a big shot."
The winning shot, as it turned out. Owned by Flurry Racing Stables, Qatar Racing Limited and Big Aut Farms, Shesharesthedevil beat Swiss Skydiver by a length-and-a-half with Gamine finishing another length-and-a-half back. Ashland Stakes winner Speech was fourth, followed by Tempers Rising, Hopeful Growth, Bayerness, Donna Veloce and Dream Marie.
A 15-1 shot, Shedaresthedevil paid $32.20, $8.40 and $3.80.
"I told everybody if we run better than fourth it's a bonus and if we run worse than fourth it's a disappointment," said co-owner Staton Flurry afterward. "We're tickled to death."
Pressed by Shedaresthedevil, Gamine led for most of the way before being passed in the stretch. In her first try at 1 [ miles, it turned out the $1.8 million purchase by Michael Lund Petersen just couldn't quite get the distance.
"She just didn't have it," said trainer Bob Baffert, who has won the Oaks three times. "Turning for home, she was in a good spot and she was late switching leads and she never does that. I don't know if she just got tired or whatever. But down the backside he couldn't have been any better, he was in the perfect spot. She just didn't have it there."
Distance was the only unanswered question for Gamine. She had won all four of her career starts by a combined 32 lengths, though she was disqualified from her May 2 win at Oaklawn for a drug (lidocaine) violation. She romped in the Acorn Stakes, winning by a ridiculous 18 } lengths, then rolled in the Test Stakes by 7 lengths at Saratoga on Aug. 8.
Swiss Skydiver had already proved she could handle the 9 furlongs. Trainer Kenny McPeek put her up against the boys in the Grade 2 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes on July 11 where Swiss Skydiver finished an impressive second to winner Art Collector. After that, she geared down and still won the Alabama Stakes at Saratoga by 3 { lengths on Aug. 15.
That set up Friday's showdown. Gamine went off as an even-money favorite. Swiss Skydiver was close behind at 5-2.
"Swiss Skydiver crushed us in the Fantasy," Flurry said. "Gamine is one of the best fillies we've seen in a long, long time."
"She ran super," said McPeek of Swiss Skydiver. "That other filly (Shedaresthedevil) has been training extremely well. I actually wasn't as worried about Gamine as I was about another filly running a bang-up race. That's what happened."
It was McPeek's third second-place finish in the Oaks. He was runner-up with Take Charge Lady (to Farda Amiga) in 2002 and Daddy's Little Darling (to Baffert's Abel Tasman) in 2017.
Meanwhile, Shedaresthedevil had finished a distant third to Swiss Skydiver in the Fantasy Stakes on May 1 at Oaklawn. But last time out, she captured the Indiana Oaks on July 8. Before that, she won an allowance race at Churchill Downs on May 1, her second win in as many starts over the Churchill surface. She's now 3 for 3.
"She broke extremely well which always gives you a big advantage," said Geroux, who came back from a mild case of COVID-19 in July. "From there, I just stayed where I was and pulled the trigger at the right time."
"We were a little closer maybe than expected, but I didn't think the pace was as hot as we expected," said Cox of the :47.4 for the half-mile. "She's been touting herself in the morning that she had a big one in her."
Meanwhile, Cox's star keeps burning brighter. The Oaks was the 17th graded stakes win this year for the 40-year-old, who had Mr. Monomoy and Wells Bayou, both considered top Kentucky Derby contenders in the spring who failed to make it to the starting gate the first Saturday in September. Friday's win was not a bad consolation prize.
Bred by WinStar Farm, Shedaresthedevil was a $280,000 purchase at the 2019 Keeneland November Sale. The Oaks marked her fifth win in 10 career starts. It was her fourth victory in six starts this year.
Said Cox, "We are so thrilled to win a race like the Oaks, again, in our backyard."
