Jorge Ruiz goes for The Very One with No Show Sammy Jo, against Doña Clota and For Flying

The Argentine jockey Jorge Ruiz will ride the favorite for Saturday's G3 at Gulfstream Park, and will measure himself against the Chilean and the Brazilian in what promises to be a race with a strong regional flavor

Jorge Ruiz Díaz is having a great Championship Meet/ ADAM COGLIANESE

HALLANDALE BEACH, Florida (Special for Turf Diario).- The Championship Meet at Gulfstream Parkcontinues to vibrate at the rhythm of the great stars, and this Saturday one of the spotlights will be on the Argentinejockey Jorge Ruiz, who is having a notable run this season and will seek to consolidate his great momentum in the The Very One Stakes (G3). With a purse of 175,000 dollars and a distance of 2,200 meters on the turf, the competition is one of the highlights of a spectacular day that includes the Coolmore Fountain of Youth (G2).

The professional will be in the irons of the heavy favorite, No Show Sammy Jo (Lope de Vega), a 6-year-old British mare trained by Graham Motion. After coming close to glory in graded stakes —finishing second by a narrow margin in the Long Island (G3) at Aqueduct in its last 2 editions— the Newstead Stables team is confident that this is the ideal opportunity for her to achieve that long-awaited stakes victory.

“I think it’s very important for her to get a graded win; she has the caliber necessary to achieve it,” stated Graham Motion. No Show Sammy Jo is coming off a seventh-place finish in the Christophe Clement (G3), where she was a victim of a slow pace that did not favor her closing kick, but her trainer assures that she arrives in optimal condition and at a distance she handles perfectly, having previously won the Via Borghese (L) over this same course. The bay will start from the outside lane (9) with a 9-5 favoritism on the morning line.

The South American armada will play a leading role in the contest. Graham Motion himself will present the Brazilian For Flying (Drosselmeyer), a G1 winner in her home country (Barão de Piracicaba) who returns to the grass after 3 performances on the Tapeta synthetic surface. With 6-1 odds and the mount of David Egan, she seeks to regain her best form on a surface where she boasts 4 victories and 2 second-place finishes in 9 attempts.

On the other hand, the Chilean Doña Clota will make her debut under the tutelage of Saffie Joseph Jr. The daughter of Ivan Denisovich, who managed to string together G1 victories in her native Chile, seeks revenge in the North after a less-than-productive stint in the barns of Ignacio Correas IV and Chad Brown. “She arrived at our stud a few days after the Pegasus and she looks very happy. She has a great reputation in Chile and we hope she can show all that potential here,” commented Joseph Jr. regarding the mare who will break from post 6 with an 8-1 quote.

The field is completed by heavyweight names such as Venencia (Recolectos), winner of the Dowager (G3) and now under the training of Saffie Joseph Jr.; the consistent Candy Quest (Connect), winner of the Ontario Colleen (G3); and Just Basking (Arrogate), who stood out on the dirt with a third-place finish in the Alabama (G1) and now tries her luck on the grass.

The The Very One Stakes pays tribute to the exceptional mare who, between 1977 and 1981, garnered 22 victories and surpassed one million dollars in earnings, including a win in the Santa Barbara (G1).