Alittleloveandluck First Black-Type Winner for Arrogate

Alittleloveandluck became the first black-type winner for her late sire Arrogate when she took the $100,000 Ginger Brew Stakes Jan. 1 at Gulfstream Park.

The 3-year-old filly owned and trained by Michael Dini is from a limited crop by the champion son of Unbridled’s Song, who died unexpectedly in 2020 at age 7 after just three seasons at stud. She is the first sophomore starter by Arrogate, who himself did not debut until April of his 3-year-old year and did not break his maiden until that June before going on to greatness.

Bred in Florida by Helen and Joseph Barbazon out of the Point Given mare Points of Grace , Alittleloveandluck was acquired privately by Dini after failing to meet her reserve when the hammer fell for $135,000 at the 2020 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. The filly took four starts to break her maiden, testing her mettle in open company on the turf at Saratoga Race Course and Belmont Park and on the dirt at Parx Racing before she graduated Nov. 12 with a game nose score under Paco Lopez in a mile and 70-yard test for state-breds over Gulfstream’s new Tapeta surface.

Dini felt Alittleloveandluck was destined for turf racing, but began to have his doubts when the filly failed to hit the board in either of her first two starts, both on the lawn. When the Gulfstream racing office called to see if he would try her once again on turf in the Ginger Brew, however, the trainer gave it another shot.

“I said, ‘Well, I might as well try her one more time on the grass with a short field,'” Dini recalled.

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With Lopez back in the irons, Alittleloveandluck secured inside position from post 3 around the first turn of the Ginger Brew, which was run at about a mile on firm turf. She settled nicely as Li Li Bear showed the way, then shifted out to the five path around the turn for home and responded under right-handed pressure to draw clear in a hand-timed clocking of 1:36.68. Fractional times were not available.

Ocean Safari , who briefly took the lead, was outkicked and had to settle for second by half a length. Even-money favorite Opalina completed the trifecta.

Alittleloveandluck was sent off at odds of 7-1 in her stakes debut and return from the state-bred ranks, and paid $17.80 on a $2 win ticket.

Juddmonte’s homebred Arrogate earned the 2016 champion 3-year-old male title after scoring five consecutive wins that culminated in victories in the Travers Stakes (G1)—which he won by 13 1/2 lengths while breaking a 36-year-old track record for 1 1/4 miles—and the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1), in which he beat 2016 Horse of the Year California Chrome . He kicked off his 4-year-old season by winning the inaugural $12 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) in track-record time and followed with a hard-to-believe last-to-first win in the $10 million Dubai World Cup Sponsored By Emirates Airline (G1) after a tardy start. Trained by Bob Baffert, Arrogate retired with a 7-1-1 record from 11 starts and earnings of $17,422,600, making him the richest North American racehorse in history.