Marketing Mix holds on Gamely for Stevens

Tiz Flirtatious actually poked her head in front of Marketing Mix at the top

of the lane, and got the mile split in 1:35 2/5. Once Marketing Mix lengthened

stride, though, she produced a telling burst and forged ahead. Yet Tiz

Flirtatious was not done. Staying on relentlessly in the final yards, Tiz

Flirtatious came again and clawed back most of the deficit.

The five-year-old Marketing Mix showed no ring-rustiness. Although the

Medaglia d'Oro mare had drifted toward the inside by this point, and might not

have had a good view of Tiz Flirtatious several paths away from her, she

responded to Stevens' every call to keep her head in front. Spotting four pounds

to the runner-up, Marketing Mix negotiated 1 1/8 miles in 1:47 1/5 and furnished

mutuels of $5, $3.20 and $2.20.

The top two were 4 1/4 lengths clear of Lady of Shamrock, who closed

belatedly to deprive Halo Dolly of third by a nose. My Gi Gi, Miss Ellany and

Private Affair concluded the order of finish.

Stevens had last visited the Hollywood winner's circle almost eight years ago

-- aboard Alphabet Kisses, following the A Gleam Invitational Handicap on July

9, 2005. In brilliant form since launching his comeback over the winter, Stevens

added the Gamely to his recent coups for D. Wayne Lukas, with Oxbow in the

Preakness and Skyring in the Dixie.

"Both (Julien Leparoux on Tiz Flirtatious) and I were both trying to make the

winning move coming into the stretch," Stevens said. "About the sixteenth-pole

we were getting them cranked up and his mare actually had a little better turn

of foot than mine did, but we managed to get up in time.

"I thought I beat him, but he was so far out -- when I stood up it looked

like he might have been in front -- Julien asked me, 'What do you think' and I

said, 'I have no idea.' Two good performances by two very good mares.''

Leparoux complimented the winner, whom he rode regularly for a time.

"I put some pressure around the three-eighths pole," Leparoux said, "and

actually got the jump on Marketing Mix and went by her, but she came back and

beat us. Marketing Mix is a good mare. She did not run second in the Breeders'

Cup Filly & Mare Turf for nothing, but my mare is very good too and she ran a

big race today."

"She had a chance to get by that mare," Tiz Flirtatious' trainer Marty Jones

said, "and (Marketing Mix) just wouldn't let her get by. She ran her heart out.

Those are two super nice mares. Just another jump and we would have gotten to

her, but that's horse racing.

"I'm going to have to see how she takes this race. This was a hard race. It

was a gut-wrenching race so we'll have to see how she responds. Hopefully she's

still doing well at the end of the year so we can make the Breeders' Cup (Filly

& Mare Turf November 1) at Santa Anita."

The trainer also mentioned how he lined up Stevens for the mount.

"I told Gary at Keeneland, 'You might ride this filly, you ought to come over

and work her.' So he did and everything worked out well.''

Stevens guided her in an April 18 work over the Polytrack.

"I was fortunate to work her three-quarters of a mile (in 1:14) at Keeneland

and she was super strong," Stevens said.

"Very special to win the Gamely," Glen Hill Farm President

Craig Bernick tweeted.

"(The trainer's) dad W.L. Proctor won it with Foggy Note. Hopefully Marketing

Mix will be in as many pedigrees."

Foggy Note won the 1969 Long Beach, the race that was later renamed after

Gamely. She became the dam of influential sire Relaunch and ancestress of

Glitterman, Rubiano and Tapit.

Bred by Sean Fitzhenry in Ontario, Marketing Mix was purchased by her current

connections for $150,000 as a Keeneland September yearling. She was produced by

the Kris S. mare Instant Thought, and her second dam, the multiple Grade/Group

3-placed Nimble Mind, is a full sister to multiple Grade 2 heroine Skimble, the

dam of two-time Pacific Classic star Skimming. This is also the family of Grade

1 winner Contredance; Group 2 scorer and multiple Grade 1-placed Eltish; and One

Thousand Guineas victress Wince, the dam of Group 1 queen and classic-placed

Quiff.

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