Back in 1980, Jerome and Marlene Brody paid $76,000 for a yearling Illinois-bred filly by the French-bred, dual-champion Blushing Groom. Forty-three years later, that family has brought Gallagher’s Stud its first Kentucky Oaks runner. 

Gambling Girl will break from Post 3 on Friday afternoon, the only New York-bred runner in the race. She represents four generations of Gallagher’s Stud breeding, and farm manager Mallory Mort has been with the family, and the farm, pretty much since the beginning.

Jerome and Marlene Brody established Gallagher’s Stud in Ghent in 1976 as a cattle-breeding operation. Two years later, the farm expanded to include breeding thoroughbreds, and a year later, in 1979, Mort arrived and never left.

That Illinois-bred mare was named Grand Bonheur, and her family has been an integral part of Gallagher’s Stud success for the last three decades. 

Though her first foal, Felicita, was unraced, Felicita’s first foal, Eventail, earned $300,000, winning two stakes races for New York-breds before retiring. After foaling two babies for Gallagher’s Stud, Eventail was offered at the 2006 Keeneland November sale of breeding stock, where Japan’s Shadai Farm paid $925,000 for her. 

In 1998, the Brodys sold Felicita in foal to Rubiano for $42,000 at the Keeneland November breeding stock sale. The resulting filly, Take Charge Lady, would earn nearly $2.5 million over a three-race career, then produce Take Charge Indy (earnings of $1.1 million) and Will Take Charge, who won the 2013 Travers and earned just under $4 million.  

Eventail’s second foal, Tulipmania, remained with the Brodys, and after earning nearly $144,000 on the racetrack, she joined the Gallagher Stud broodmare band in 2011. Nine years later, she had a filly by Dialed In. Now named Gambling Girl, that filly is a fourth-generation Gallagher’s Stud homebred and the first horse bred by the farm to run in the Kentucky Oaks. 

Gambling Girl was purchased as a yearling out of the 2021 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale of preferred New York-breds. Repole Stable paid $200,000 for her and sent her to trainer Todd Pletcher, and on Friday, she’ll be ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., who’s been in the saddle for all but two of her nine previous races.

If you pay attention to two-year-old races at Saratoga, you might remember Gambling Girl’s 10-length win last August to break her maiden. She ran exclusively in races for New York-breds until the end of the year, when Pletcher and Repole introduced her to open company in the Grade 2 Demoiselle Stakes at Aqueduct in December. After finishing third, she’s raced since then consistently in stakes races, both listed and graded, accumulating enough Kentucky Oaks qualifying points to earn a spot in the starting gate.

“I liked Dialed In a lot as a sire,” said Mort of the filly’s breeding. “He’s a son of Mineshaft, and Mineshaft didn’t really sire a lot of big, rangy horses. Dialed In is nothing like that.”

“Mrs. Brody liked the way his page looked, and we thought he was underrated at the time we bred to him,” he continued. “He’s still a little underrated.”  

Mort described Gambling Girl as “a beauty.”

“She’s one of those horses that we really liked from the beginning,” he said. “She was always very correct and well balanced, with enough size. She was a very nice baby.”

Both of Gambling Girl’s wins have come from off the pace, and she’ll do her best running in a race with early speed. Fortunately, the 14-horse Oaks field looks like it will provide plenty of that. 

“She’s a closer, so she’ll need to have some pace to close into,” said Mort. “There’s that long stretch at Churchill Downs, and she keeps plugging away, so we’ll see.”

The filly may well also have to contend with an off track, as rain is forecast for Louisville on Friday. In her lone start on a sloppy track, Gambling Girl finished third by a length in the Demoiselle, suggesting that she may well handle a wet Churchill surface. She is 15-1 on the morning line.

Gambling Girl’s family is the last one with a four-generation Gallagher’s Stud lineage, and it seems that thanks to Tulipmania, that line will keep going.

A full brother to Gambling Girl is expected to sell at Fasig-Tipton’s auction in Saratoga this summer, and two years ago, a Twirling Candy half-sister sold for $90,000. Tulipmania will be bred to Essential Quality this year, after having recently foaled a filly.

“She’s a beautiful Medaglia D’Oro filly,” said Mort. “She’s the kind that gets your hopes up immediately.”  

The farm generally breeds to sell rather than race, but Mort admits that it’s hard not to consider keeping one of Tulipmania’s fillies to keep the line going. 

“It’s always tempting,” he said. “But her offspring generally sell pretty well, and the money helps to keep the farm going.”

Rather than traveling to Louisville, Kentucky, Mort and Marlene Brody — Jerome died in 2001–will be watching from the farm that has been an integral part of New York breeding and racing since it was established, rooting on Gambling Girl even as they celebrate what she’s already accomplished.

“She’s the kind of horse,” said Mort, “that Mrs. Brody has tried to breed as long as we’ve been breeding horses.”  

Categories: At The Track, Horse Racing, Sports