How to bet the 2024 Gamely Stakes

The Leonard Powell-trained #6 Anisette will make her much anticipated four-year-old debut in Monday’s $300,000 Gamely S. (G1) at Santa Anita Park. The 1 1/8-mile turf affair is the first of a trio of major stakes on the day and attracted an excellent cast of fillies and mares. 

Gamely Wagers

• $10 exacta 6 with 1,2,7 ($30)
• $1 trifecta box 1,2,6,7 ($24)

Anisette arrived in the States for her three-year-old season and left a huge impression on me as she compiled a 6-4-2-0 mark on the U.S. sod, led by tallies in the American Oaks (G1) and Del Mar Oaks (G1). The dark bay daughter of Awtaad has a major task ahead of her, with her one-run closing style combined with facing her toughest field to date. But if she improved at all off the layoff, then she will be tough to hold off late with Umberto Rispoli in the controls. 

I’ll use her with a trio of ladies in the turf event, including two from the barn of Richard Mandella. #2 Ruby Nell, a $1.2 million purchase in 2022, dons a mighty 6-5-1-0 mark on this surface which includes a score in the Buena Vista (G2) in her most recent showing. The bay has excellent gate presence and early speed, but she is not as headstrong as she once was, which has obviously moved her up to some extent. Edwin Maldonado will ride. 

#7 Linda’s Gift has reached new heights in her last trio of performances and makes her first run since the winter for Mandella. The Arrogate mare showed marked improvement when stretched out to 10 furlongs and beyond on the grass while compiling three black-type victories in succession. She might have to rate just off of her stablemate early with Tiago Pereira riding. 

And William Walden’s #1 Olivia Maralda was a pricey purchase at Tattersalls in the fall and showed a nice turn of foot when second in a Keeneland allowance in her stateside bow. The Kodiac filly will need better to challenge for the win in this cast, but I like the rail and the presence of Flavien Prat, so I don’t think that she is impossible at a fair price.