Got Stormy To Make Eclipse Case in Matriarch

[Wandering Eyes]

With her GI Breeders’ Cup Mile conqueror and defending race champion Uni (GB) (More Than Ready) neatly tucked away for the season, Gary Barber’s Got Stormy (Get Stormy) has a golden opportunity to enhance her championship credentials in Sunday’s GI Matriarch S. at Del Mar.

Never out of the top three in her seven trips to the post this season, the chestnut was the beneficiary of an all-time set-up when facing the boys for the first time in her career in Saratoga’s GI Fourstardave H. Aug. 10 and flew home to score by 2 1/2 lengths in course-record time, as Uni got going too late and had to settle for third. Taking the ‘Tepin’ route to the Breeders’ Cup, Got Stormy tried males again in the GI Woodbine Mile Sept. 14, but was forced to settle for second and she was beaten on the square when it arguably counted most on Breeders’ Cup Saturday. That said, a Matriarch win would level the Grade I score at two apiece and will give Eclipse voters a little something to think about.

Daddy Is a Legend (Scat Daddy) has had a more abbreviated 4-year-old campaign than the favorite, but it certainly seems like one that has been geared around this race, in which she was the unlucky runner-up 12 months back. Third, just a head behind Got Stormy, on seasonal debut in the GII Distaff Turf Mile at Churchill May 5, the dark bay was third in the GI Just A Game S. June 8 before hitting the shelf. The 92 Beyer Speed Figure she received for her allowance comeback at Keeneland Oct. 24 tells none of the story, as she was allowed to run home after racing under a double stranglehold for most of the trip.

Toinette (Scat Daddy) looms the main local threat. Third to future GI Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf runner-up Vasilika (Skipshot) and Juliet Foxtrot (GB) (Dansili {GB}) in the local GII John C. Mabee S. over nine furlongs Aug. 31, she has since posted authoritative scores in the restricted Swingtime S. at Sant Anita Oct. 5 and the GII Goldikova S. Nov. 3, each over Sunday’s specialist trip.

Juliet Foxtrot won Arlington’s GIII Modesty H. over a mile and three-sixteenths in July and was most recently closest to Uni and a spot ahead of Vasilika in Keeneland’s GI First Lady S. Oct. 5.

 

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