Chelsea Durand Photo

Cartwheelin Lulu wins stakes debut in Joseph A. Gimma

by Brian Bohl

Roddy Valente's Cartwheelin Lulu surged to the front and never relinquished the lead, posting a gate-to-wire victory in her stakes debut in the 25th running of the Joseph A. Gimma for 2-year-old New York-bred fillies on Wednesday at Belmont Park. 

Under Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez, Cartwheelin Lulu led the field of seven through the opening fractions of 23.17 seconds for a quarter-mile with the half in 47.22 with stablemate Party Like Grandma in close pursuit. The Bustin Stones filly, who won her debut on August 16 against males at Finger Lakes for trainer Jeremiah Englehart, stayed near the rail out of the turn and fended off a late charge to outkick More Mischief by 1 ½ lengths, completing seven furlongs in 1:23.71 on the fast main track.

"I knew the other part of the entry for Jeremiah had some speed [Party Like Grandma] so wanted to see what she was going to do inside of me," Velazquez said. "When I saw she didn't I just dropped in front and she relaxed up there for me. She's a big filly and she even galloped out pretty strong which really surprised me so maybe she's capable enough to outrun her pedigree."

Cartwheelin Lulu, who won at 5 ½ furlongs in her first start, handled the stretch out in distance in her first appearance on Belmont's Big Sandy. Off at 7-1, she paid $16 on a $2 win wager, improving her career earnings to $93,900. 

More Mischief, trained by Chad Brown, edged Elegant Zip by a nose in her first stakes appearance. She's Trouble, Party Like Grandma, Maiden Beauty and Ma Meatloaf completed the order of finish. 

"I thought Johnny did a really nice job being aggressive and getting the lead," said Englehart, who also started Party Like Grandma and Ma Meatloaf. "My plan with Party Like Grandma was that I was a little worried about the distance with her so I kind of wanted to stay off the pace a little bit and maybe that didn't work out for the best.

"This filly [Cartwheelin Lulu] has been a little bit of a late bloomer as far as running early," Englehart said. "When we got a lot of the 2-year-olds in, she was just working OK, but as she got closer to her first race, she was working a little more aggressive. I didn't think the boys at Finger Lakes were all that tough so we ran her against the boys there, and she's matured nice since the year's gone on."

Englehart said Cartwheelin Lulu could be a possibility to run in the $250,000 Maid of the Mist for 2-year-old state-bred fillies at a mile on Empire Showcase Day on October 20 at Belmont.

"I think that'll be the natural progression from here," he said. "I guess we'll see how she comes out of the race and kind of go from there, but that will probably be the next stop.

 "Roddy [Valente] was very confident in the breeding that she would stretch out a little bit. Bustin Stones, he's just a nice, hard-knocking horse, and with the mare [Reprieve], it's just the right combination. He was right; he felt like she should handle the distance and maybe even go to a mile, and I'm really glad she did."