Gelfenstein Farm’s Dearest made her first start since September a winning one when she charged to a one-length victory in the G3 Sugar Swirl Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
It was the first Graded Stakes win for the three-year-old daughter of Midshipman, who improved her record to five wins in seven career starts.
Breaking sharply out of the gate, Dearest sat in second, just off the flank of heavily-favored Stonetastic through the first quarter-mile. Dearest then drew alongside her rival going into the far turn, and the fillies ran as a pair through a swift half-mile in :44.34. Dearest shook clear of Stonetastic at the top of the stretch and pulled away, and she had plenty left in the tank to hold off the late bid of You Bought Her to win by a length.
Dearest was bred in Kentucky by Daniel J. Burke and Kathleen Schweizer, and is out of Keowee Clai, a winning daughter of champion Cherokee Run. Dearest hails from the immediate female family of Sand Ridge, winner of the Iowa Sprint Handicap, and Stopshoppingmaria, who won the Ladies Turf Sprint Stakes and was second in the G1 Frizette.
Among current third-crop sires, only Munnings has more blacktype winners than Midshipman. A few of Midshipman’s top runners are 11-time Stakes winner Lady Shipman; Colleen Stakes winner Red Lodge; Riskaverse Stakes winner Stormy Regatta; Happy Ticket Stakes winner Naval Command; and Unbridled Stakes winner Allied Air Raid.
Midshipman will stand the 2017 breeding season at Jonabell Farm in Kentucky for a fee of $8,500, stands and nurses.
