Best Horses Not to Win a Championship Series: Optimistic Gal

Best Horses Not to Win a Championship Series
Number 7: Optimistic Gal

Joseph Di Rienzi

This is the next installment of the occasional series that features those somewhat forgotten thoroughbreds who did not win any championship but ran exceptionally well and under different circumstances might have garnered awards. This issue discusses Diana Firestone’s Optimistic Gal.

She was an elegant dark bay or brown daughter by Sir Ivor out of the Traffic Judge mare Hopes Ahead. This classically bred filly was trained by LeRoy Jolley. Optimistic Gal broke her maiden as a two-year-old in June of 1975 at first asking at Belmont Park at 5½ furlongs. She followed that with a facile allowance win, also at Belmont.

Optimistic Gal’s main rival for a championship in her first year of racing was Richard E. Bailey’s Dearly Precious, a compact daughter by Dr. Fager. Starting her career earlier than Optimistic Gal, the latter had won already 4 stakes races by the time the two adversaries first faced each other in the Sorority Stakes at Monmouth Park in late July. The race’s 6 furlong distance would appear to favor Dr. Fager’s daughter over her Sir Ivor sired opponent. In the Sorority, Dearly Precious, always prominent, took the lead heading into the stretch and repulsed Optimistic Gal’s bid to win by 2¼ lengths.

At Saratoga Racetrack, Optimistic Gal won her first stakes with a 9¾ length victory in the 6 furlong Adirondack. The second meeting between Dearly Precious and Optimistic Gal, in the 6 furlong Spinaway Stakes, resulted in the same finish as the Sorority with the margin now reduced to one length. Confirming the superiority of these two fillies over the rest of their generation, the third finisher, Quintas Vicki, was 10¾ lengths behind Optimistic Gal.  In what was the conclusion of her juvenile campaign, Dearly Precious was victorious in the Arlington-Washington Lassie Stakes. She presented as her championship credentials 7 straight stakes victories, however, none were at distances more than 6 furlongs. In the end, her two wins over Optimistic Gal would be the decisive factor.

In addition to Optimistic Gal, trainer LeRoy Jolley had in his barn the leading candidate for male two-year-old honors in Honest Pleasure. The colt owned by Bert Firestone (Diana’s husband) won in September the Arlington-Washington Futurity. Back at Belmont Park, a little earlier on the same day, Honest Pleasure’s barn mate, Optimistic Gal, won the 7 furlong Matron Stakes by 6½ lengths.

The Frizette Stakes, also at Belmont, was next for Optimistic Gal, which she won by 3¼ lengths over Artfully. Her male counterpart returned to New York and asserted his dominance by winning the Cowdin Stakes and Champagne Stakes, both easily. In what was getting to be a pattern, on the same day as the Champagne, Optimistic Gal won the 7 furlong Alcibiades Stakes in the slop at Keeneland Racecourse by a mind boggling 21 lengths. The Firestones were definitely having a great fall, but on these occasions, they couldn’t both be in two places on the same day to accept the respective winners’ trophies. 

Both Firestone horses had one more start in 1975, and these would be at Laurel Racetrack. Unfortunately for travel arrangements, the races were not run on the same day, but on consecutive weekends. Optimistic Gal ended her juvenile season with a 2¼ length win over Artfully in the 8½ furlong Selima Stakes. With victories in the all the major fall stakes races: the Matron, the Frizette, the Alcibiades, and the Selima, Optimistic Gal presented a strong resume for Two-Year-Old Filly Champion with 7 victories in her 9 starts. However, her two losses against Dearly Precious, cost her the title. On the other hand, Honest Pleasure finished his championship year with a victory in the Laurel Futurity.

The following year would find Optimistic Gal having an ambitious 12 race campaign. Her three-year-old season was launched in April at Keeneland. Winning an allowance race easily, she next raced in the 7 furlong Ashland Stakes. From her number one post, Optimistic Gal led all the way and prevailed by 1¼ lengths. Optimistic Gal put a capstone to her spring Kentucky campaign with a dominant win in the 1 1/16 mile Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on Derby Eve, winning by 4¼ lengths over Comfort Zone and Carmelita Gibbs who missed second by a nose.

The 1 mile Acorn Stakes at Belmont was the stage for the first meeting of the year between Dearly Precious and Optimistic Gal. Because her two losses this year were in races more than 6 furlongs, the suspicion that Dearly Precious was just a sprinter removed her from favoritism over Optimistic Gal. Under jockey Jorge Velasquez, Dearly Precious set the early pace and dispatched all rivals including Optimistic Gal who finished behind her in second (for the third time) by 2¼ lengths with Tell Me All and Girl in Love, neck and neck behind Optimistic Gal for the third and fourth placings, respectively.

The Mother Goose at 9 furlongs was run at Belmont the day before the Belmont Stakes, and it once again featured the rivalry between Dearly Precious and Optimistic Gal. It developed into a torrid pace duel between the two principals as the Firestone camp would not allow Dearly Precious to have an uncontested lead. The fractions were blistering and took their toll on Dearly Precious who eventually retreated to last in the five horse field. However, Optimistic Gal was weakened sufficiently by her early exhortations that she could not withstand the late surge by Girl in Love who passed her in deep stretch to win by 1¼ lengths with Ancient Fables third, 11 lengths back.

The Coaching Club American Oaks was the finale of the New York Filly Triple Tiara series. The winners of the first two legs – Dearly Precious (Acorn Stakes) and Girl in Love (Mother Goose) did not contest the 1½ mile CCA Oaks, but Optimistic Gal, who had finished second in both of the earlier races, was present. At first glance, the race seemed to be at the Firestone filly’s mercy, but there was a lightly raced filly who would prove to be a fierce competitor. Revidere, a tall gangly chestnut daughter of Reviewer out of the mare Quillesian by Princequillo owned by William Haggin Perry, was unraced as a two-year-old. Breaking her maiden at first asking in 1976, Revidere moved up the condition ranks with two more wins. Facing stakes competition for the first time in the 8½ furlong Cotillion Stakes at Keystone Racetrack, she drew out to win by 4 lengths.

At the start of the CCA Oaks, Ten Cents a Dance, stumbled and unseated Angel Cordero Jr. All Rainbows set the pace tracked by Revidere. When No Duplicate moved up to join the leaders down the long backstretch, Revidere took the lead.  As the leaders headed around the far turn, Optimistic Gal moved strongly on the outside and in the stretch wrested the lead from Revidere.  However, the Perry filly was not done and re-rallied, so that at the finish she was actually edging away from Optimistic Gal. The final margin was ½ length with No Duplicate, more than 8 lengths away in third place. With this dramatic win in time faster than Bold Forbes had run in winning the Belmont Stakes, Revidere became a serious contender for three-year-old filly honors.

At the Saratoga meeting in August, Optimistic Gal continued her losing streak (now at four) with a sixth place finish under top weight in the Test Stakes. In the 1¼ mile Alabama Stakes, Optimistic Gal put herself back into the championship picture with an astounding 16 length win (see photo above).

On the first weekend in September, the two leading three-year-old fillies, Optimistic Gal and Revidere, ran in different races. Revidere contested the Gazelle Handicap at 9 furlongs at Belmont and remained unbeaten while winning under top weight of 124 lb. by 1½ lengths. At Delaware Park in the 1¼ mile Delaware Handicap, Optimistic Gal was entered against older females, but found her main rival another three-year-old filly. In a protracted stretch duel, Optimistic Gal wore down a very game T. V. Vixen, winning by a length.

Revidere and Optimistic Gal had the rematch of their CCA Oaks duel in the 9 furlong Beldame Stakes at Belmont Park. In this race was also the unbeaten Ivory Wand and older females, Proud Delta and West Coast invader Bastonera II. Setting the pace from the start, Proud Delta, a four-year-old daughter of Delta Judge, repelled the challenges of Ivory Wand, Revidere and Optimistic Gal to draw out to a 3 length win. Revidere re-rallied in the stretch to gain second, a ½ length ahead of Bastonera II with Optimistic Gal, a head back in fourth.

The deciding race for the three-year-old filly championship was the newly named Ruffian Stakes at Belmont Park run at 1¼ miles. Revidere, who lost her unbeaten status in the Beldame Stakes, still had a 2–0 margin over fellow Ruffian entry Optimistic Gal. The older females, Proud Delta, Bastonera II, and Garden Verse completed the weight-for-age race. On a wet fast racetrack, Proud Delta went to the lead tracked by Optimistic Gal with Revidere close by in third place. Optimistic Gal assumed the lead early, as Proud Delta, not liking the track conditions retreated to last place. Approaching the far turn, Jacinto Vasquez asked Revidere, and she readily went up to challenge Optimistic Gal. Rather than a long duel, the daughter of Reviewer went right by the daughter of Sir Ivor and opened up a clear lead as the field straightened out for the stretch run. Leaving nothing to chance, Vasquez kept urging Revidere on, and she finished with an emphatic 14 length win insuring her championship. Closing ground on the rest of the field, Bastonera II would take second by 2 lengths over Optimistic Gal.

In what would be her final start, Optimistic Gal would return to Keeneland, perhaps her favorite racetrack, to win the Spinster Stakes in the slop by 5 lengths over Ivory Wand. Despite another outstanding year, Optimistic Gal would be denied championship honors by the performances of another horse. In 1976 that horse was Revidere.

Optimistic Gal was retired at the end of her three-year-old season with a career record of 13 wins in 21 starts with only two finishes less than third place. As a broodmare, she was prolific producing many winning foals, however, none really distinguished themselves on the racetrack. Optimistic Gal died in 1999 at the age of 26.