Go Google Yourself gets first stakes win in Groupie Doll
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Samantha Siegel’s 4-year-old Go Google Yourself and jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. stalked front-running Divine Queen before taking the lead on the turn and drawing away through the stretch of the $125,000 Groupie Doll Stakes for a three-length frolic at Ellis Park.
Go Google Yourself covered the mile in 1:36.43, paying $6.80 to win as the second choice in the field of six fillies and mares. Divine Queen and jockey Calvin Borel finished 6 1/2 lengths in front of odds-on favorite Moonlit Garden, the eight-length Iowa Distaff winner.
“This filly, she’s been knocking at the door to get a stakes win, and finally got it done today,” said winning trainer Paul McGee, who shipped in from Churchill Downs. “So this was great. (Sire) Into Mischief, it doesn’t get any hotter than that, and Samantha raced the mare.”
Furthermore, the 3-year-old filly Daddymademedoit, who is a half-sister to the winner being a daughter of the Deputy Minister mare Taunt, finished second in the 10th race for maidens on turf at Ellis.
“This is a special race to win because we’ve been here the last 12 years or so at Ellis, and this is their signature race,” Hernandez said. “She’s run in some good races. Her last race at Churchill, she did run against Elate and a couple of other Grade 1 winners, and she ran a respectable race. But today we kind of set it up to where we thought she was the best horse and just let her show that. She got into a nice rhythm and was pretty confident in herself the whole race, and she was able to run around there do what she needed to do.”
Go Google Yourself finished fourth behind three Grade 1 winners in Churchill Downs’ Grade 2 Fleur de Lis Handicap in her last start, and before that was a close second in Keeneland’s Grade 3 Doubledogdare. She’s now 5-4-3 in 16 starts, boosting her earnings to $342,985 with the $77,000 winner’s purse.
“That last race, you talk about a tough race for a Grade 2, with (victorious) Elate coming back to win the Delaware Handicap,” McGee said. “Brian and I were talking about that in the paddock, that there weren’t any Elates in there today. We were just glad to get it done. But Brian said she had a good feel all the way around, had her ears pricked and was running comfortable. We also turned the tables on that filly that beat us in the Dogwood.”
That’s Divine Queen, who beat Go Google Yourself by a head in last September’s Dogwood at Churchill Downs.
“She ran well,” said Buff Bradley, Divine Queen’s trainer, co-owner and breeder who also trained co-owned and bred Groupie Doll, the two-time champion for whom the stakes is named. “Calvin rode her perfectly. We knew we were going to try to go out there, since we had the one hole, and try to control the pace a little bit. It looked like the 4, Paul McGee’s horse, had us the whole way, was right on our outside the whole way. But Divine Queen never gave up. She just kept trying, and that’s the way she is. She’s all heart. I’m proud of her. We’ll be back next year.”
Said Borel: “I thought she ran good. She struggled a little bit on the track, but we just got outrun. She ran her race. She’ll be all right.”
Far more disappointed was Brad Cox, trainer of Moonlit Garden, who never was really a threat in the race.
“To be 3-5 and run a distant third,” he said. “She looked like she was traveling fine, but just not really into the bridle, taking Florent (Geroux) up the backside like I’d have liked to have seen. Very flat effort. We’ll regroup, maybe look at the Locust Grove at Churchill and go from there.”
Moonlit Garden was followed home by Sweet Arithmetic and Auspicious Babe. My Mertie, winner of Arlington Park’s Grade 3 Chicago Handicap in her last start, stumbled at the start, unseating jockey Tyler Baze. Both the 7-year-old mare, who continued to run on before being corralled by the outriders, and Baze were OK.
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