LEXINGTON, Ky. – Gin Gin loves Keeneland. Loves Keeneland. Might as well say it twice, just like her name, because what Gin Gin did here Sunday, she did this spring, too, upsetting a graded dirt route stakes race for older fillies and mares. But the Grade 3 Doubledogdare, which Gin Gin won at 38-1, was one thing. Sunday’s Grade 1, $650,000 Spinster was quite another.
Sent straight to the lead by Luis Saez, Gin Gin set a strong pace, fended off Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna, then repelled a stern bid from Nitrogen to prevail by a head at 18-1.
Wow. Wow.
Luis Saez, riding Gin Gin for the first time, made a beeline for the lead straight out of the gate. Saez did not attempt to back the pace down, intent on making the most of Gin Gin’s speed, and Gin Gin went her half-mile in a testing 46.69. When Nitrogen loomed at the quarter pole, drawing nearly even, Gin Gin could have wilted.
“She’s a filly, she likes the pressure,” said Saez, who rode Gin Gin for Calumet Farm and trainer Brendan Walsh. “That was a pretty fast half, 46, but I still had horse. She dug in when Nitrogen came. She never let her get by.”
Nitrogen, the 2-1 second choice, a 3-year-old facing older horses for the first time, broke a half-beat slow and wound up three paths wide on both turns. She had 1 1/4 lengths on third-place Scylla, who got a good trip stalking the pace but could not produce quite enough speed from the furlong grounds to the wire.
It was more than seven lengths back to Thorpedo Anna, the 2024 Horse of the Year and the 1-2 favorite, who beat only overmatched Chilled. Thorpedo Anna had won four of her five starts this year, and in her lone defeat, a seventh in the La Troienne at Churchill Downs in May, she had a plausible excuse: checked hard and bumped going into the first turn. Sunday’s disappointment came without trouble. Thorpedo Anna tracked Gin Gin down the backstretch and going into the far turn. Nitrogen went past her at the three-furlong marker and Thorpedo Anna had no response.
“I thought I was in a good spot,” said jockey Flavien Prat, who rode Thorpedo Anna for the first time. “I thought she was traveling good, and then I got to the turn, and I was in deep water. As soon as I got to the turn, she swapped leads and … just nothing underneath me.”
About 90 minutes after the Spinster, trainer Kenny McPeek posted a video on his X social media feed saying that nothing appeared to be amiss with Thorpedo Anna, who scoped clean, while hinting that Thorpedo Anna might have run her last race.
“The notion that she’s going to go to California [for the Breeders’ Cup] is probably the least of our concerns,” McPeek said. “If it’s her last race, it’s her last race, and if that’s the case, we’re really proud of her.”
Gin Gin is a homebred by Hightail out of Before You Know It, by Hard Spun. Racing for a different trainer, she showed some ability at ages 2 and 3, but failed to progress after capturing the listed Busanda in January 2024. Walsh took over her training this past winter, aimed at the Doubledogdare, and hit the mark, as Gin Gin far exceeded her previous peak. She finished a creditable second in the Shawnee Stakes in May and a worse fourth in the Fleur de Lis in June before Walsh paused her campaign.
“We ran her fresh in the spring, and she was so good. I just couldn’t get her looking right over the summer. She wouldn’t shed her winter coat. I had to send her to Saratoga to get her right again,” Walsh said.
Gin Gin came around, posting several Saratoga works before breezing sharply out of the gate here Sept. 28.
“I thought she’d run well today, but you’re in against fillies like Nitrogen and Thorpedo Anna, you’re wondering, you’re probably running for third, realistically. But I told Luis to be positive with her and go out and win the race, not ride her for a Grade 1-placing. I said ride her to win, and he did,” Walsh said.
Gin Gin, after a final furlong in a slow 13.85, clocked 1:49.77 for 1 1/8 miles over a fast track (95 Beyer Speed Figure), and paid $38.64 to win. Nitrogen turned in her typically competitive showing and, trainer Mark Casse said, probably punched her ticket to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Scylla, should Juddmonte and trainer Bill Mott want to go to the Breeders’ Cup, could have the seven-furlong Filly and Mare Sprint, a race in which she ran last year, as an option as well.
The Spinster is part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series and all being well, connections will take advantage of Gin Gin’s automatic fees-paid entry into the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. The race, of course, is at Del Mar, not Keeneland, where Gin Gin has been a different horse. She couldn’t do it again, could she? Could she?
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