Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Fluffy Socks tries to get back on winning track in Gallorette
BALTIMORE – It has been more than a year since Fluffy Socks saw the winner’s circle. It’s been even longer since she saw the Pimlico turf course, winning here in 2020. Perhaps a return will help her break back on through, as the well-traveled mare, who rarely misses a dance, returns to Baltimore for the Grade 3, $100,000 Gallorette Stakes for fillies and mares on the turf Saturday afternoon.
More travel could be in the offing for the winner of this event. As one of several partnerships 1/ST Racing has established with international racing entities, the Gallorette winner will receive automatic entry into the Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet on Aug. 18 at France’s Deauville, along with a travel stipend.
Fluffy Socks, trained by Chad Brown, the record-setting five-time winner of the Gallorette, hasn’t won since taking the Grade 2 Churchill Distaff Turf Mile on May 6, 2023. Since then, she has made seven stakes starts, finishing in the top three in four of those outings. She has been beaten a length or less in three of those efforts – including finishing second by a head in the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes last December in California. Overall, the 6-year-old millionaire has won four stakes and placed in another 12.
“She’s coming out of [her last] race really good, in good shape,” said assistant trainer Baldo Hernandez, who accompanied the mare to Maryland this week. “She’s training well.”
Fluffy Socks was most recently sixth in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley Stakes on a turf course rated good. There is an 80 percent chance of rain forecast for the Baltimore area on Saturday.
“I don’t know if maybe Keeneland was a little softer turf for her – I don’t know how it’s going to be here,” Hernandez said.
However, Fluffy Socks has previously shown an ability to handle ground with some give in it. As a 2-year-old in 2020, in her lone appearance at Pimlico, she won the Selima Stakes on turf rated yielding. She proceeded to finish second by a nose in the Chelsey Flower Stakes on soft turf at Belmont, and is multiple graded stakesplaced on turf rated good.
Furthermore, the Jenny Wiley also was a relatively paceless race, with Brown-trained Beaute Cachee left unpressured on the lead and unable to be reeled in. Fluffy Socks and Five Towns, another well-regarded entrant in this group, both tend to come from off the pace. There would appear to be solid competition for the early positions, with Sweet Dani Girl, Dana’s Beauty, and Blissful looking well matched from posts 1, 2, and 3, respectively.
Sweet Dani Girl, a restricted stakes winner in Florida earlier this year, is a pace-pressing runner who may need to show a bit more foot from her inside draw. Dana’s Beauty has won once from six career outings on turf, but is coming off a front-running score in the Latonia Stakes on Turfway Park’s Tapeta. Blissful, who appears to be rounding into solid form at age 5, is coming off a Keeneland allowance win in which she set an honest pace.
Five Towns, who was transferred to Graham Motion in the United States this year after winning twice from seven starts overseas to start her career, has won two straight races. That includes an impressive score in the Dahlia Stakes on Laurel Park’s turf, in which she altered course near the furlong grounds and was still ridden out to win by 1 1/4 lengths.
“I think she is fit enough,” said Motion, who has won the Gallorette three times. “To me, she keeps improving.”
Completing the main body of the field are Ascendancy and Tequilera. If the wet weather is worse than expected and forces races off the turf, Cats Inthe Timber – a stakes winner on dirt last year at Laurel – and Ninja Abarrio are main-track-only entrants.