2007 Racing Season
Ginger Punch made her 2007 debut in April in the Grade II Madison Stakes on the Polytrack surface at Keeneland Race Course and finished second to Ventura, the winner of the 2008 Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint race under jockey Rafael Bejarano. In May, she won an allowance race at Churchill Downs, then on June 16 at Belmont Park in New York, under jockey David Flores, she finished second by a neck in the 1 1/16-mile Ogden Phipps Handicap.
On July 8, 2007, under regular jockey Rafael Bejarano, Ginger Punch earned the first stakes victory of her career when she won the 7 furlong First Flight Handicap at Belmont Park by five lengths. Three weeks later, at Saratoga Race Course she got her first Grade I win, capturing the 9-furlong Go For Wand Handicap by again by six lengths. On September 30 in the Beldame Stakes, Ginger Punch was sent off as the betting favorite and finished third.
For the annual Breeders' Cup, owner Frank Stronach usually nominates twenty to thirty percent of his large stable of foals, but Ginger Puch had not been one of them. Despite her loss in the Beldame Stakes, trainer Bobby Frankel convinced Stronach to pay the $180,000 supplemental fee in order for her to run in late October's Breeders' Cup Distaff at Monmouth Park. Heavy rains left the Monmouth track in a very muddy condition. Previously, the only time Ginger Punch had ever failed to finish in the top three was on a similarly sloppy track. However, in the race she won a muddy stretch duel with Hystericalady and held off a late charge from third-place finisher Octave to capture the $2 Million Breeders' Cup Distaff. Ginger Punch was named Champion Older Female in the 2007 Eclipse Awards.
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