Classy Edition coasts home with a victory in Friday’s Joseph A. Gimma Stakes at Belmont. NYRA Photo
Put another stakes win under leading New York breeders Chester and Mary Broman as Classy Edition streaked to victory in the $150,000 Joseph A. Gimma Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Belmont Park Friday.
A daughter of Classic Empire and Broman homebred Newbie, Classy Edition left little doubt in the 7-furlong stakes as she took over from Adversity and Shesawildjoker in the stretch to draw off and win by 8 lengths as the 6-5 favorite in 1:24.42. Velvet Sister finished second, with Shesawildjoker another 6 lengths back in third. Todd Pletcher trains the winner, ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., for Robert and Lawana Low.
The Gimma drew a field of six, all winners, including 9-5 second choice November Rein who came off a victory in Saratoga’s Seeking The Ante Stakes in August for owner/breeder Ron Lombardi’s Mr. Amore Stable and trainer Kelly Breen. Classy Edition won her debut on the final weekend at Saratoga by 6 3/4 lengths, and backed up that promise in the Gimma.
Pletcher saw improvement from the debut.
“First time she backed up out of the dirt [kickback] a little bit like most first-time starters will do,” said the trainer. “She settled into it a little better here. He [Ortiz] ultimately had no other option but to go out four or five wide. It looked like she finished with good energy.”
Ortiz liked the filly’s progression as well.
“She’s a second time [starter], and I just want to teach her. I dropped in for a second to see how she handled it [kickback] and she was moving good,” the jockey said. “She didn’t hesitate. She did everything right. She got the kickback the first time and she acted like she didn’t like it. Today, she handled it much better. By the three-eighths pole it was time to go and I felt like I had some horse, so I let her start doing her thing. She was moving great. By the quarter pole, I asked and she took off.”
Bloodstock agent Jacob West bought Classy Edition at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-old sale in May for $550,000, the second-highest price paid for a filly and fourth-highest overall. The only starter from the top five prices, and only winner from the top 10, she became the sale’s first stakes winner Friday.
She went to Pletcher at Saratoga and posted her first workout there June 20 after breezing a furlong in :10.1 at the sale in Timonium, Md.
Consigned to the sale by Sequel Bloodstock on behalf of the Bromans, Classy Edition is a half-sister to multiple New York-bred stakes winner Newly Minted and the stakes-placed New Girl In Town. Their dam won twice for the Bromans and trainer John Kimmel. The daughter of Bernardini produced an American Pharoah colt in 2020, did not have a foal this year.
The Bromans bought Newbie’s dam Changeisgonnacome, carrying Newbie, for $320,000 at Keeneland November in 2008. Bred in Virginia by Audley Farm, that mare won Saratoga’s P.G. Johnston Stakes in 2006 and placed in a Grade 2 the following year. All five foals of her foals to race were winners.
Horses bred by the Bromans, perennial leaders among New York-breeders, have won 55 races and earned more than $2.1 million this year – outpacing runner-up McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds and Stonewall Farm among the top three.
