Gift of Gab "gave them something to talk about" per track announcer Dave Rodman as she notched her first stakes win with a sparkling last-to-first stretch run in the $100,000 Sensible Lady Turf Dash for fillies and mares on Saturday, Sept. 12, at Laurel Park.

A 7-year-old daughter of Fast Anna trained by Suzanne Stettinius for breeders Richard Blue Jr. and Ann Merryman, Gift of Gab was the oldest of eight entrants and the third longest price. Taken to the back of the field by Jorge Ruiz at the start of the six furlongs on a good turf, she bided her time along the rail behind opening fractions of :23.06 and :45.99.

The field came together at the top of the stretch, with Gift of Gab still along the rail and now behind a wall of horses. Ruiz guided the blaze-face dark bay mare out to the five path at the midway point of the long stretch for a clear shot, and she delivered.

"It looked like there was a lot of speed in the race," said Ruiz. "Passing the quarter pole, I knew I had the horse. By the eighth pole, she responded quickly."

Gift of Gab got up late and beat out Somnium by three quarters of a length, stopping the clock in 1:09.29 and giving former Olympian Stettinius, who represented the U.S. at the 2012 Summer Games in the modern pentathlon, her first career stakes win. Gift of Gab now has a career record of 34-10-7-4 and $373,520 in earnings. Her first 11 starts came for trainer Michael Merryman before being transferred to Stettinius in 2024.

"She's such a good-trying mare," Stettinius said after the race. "I've actually ridden her since she was 2, when Michael trained her. It's nice to have known her for so long because I know when she's ready to run."

After nearly winning the Jameela at the same distance and surface in June, Gift of Gab made her first starts at Colonial Downs, finishing third in a five and a half-furlong allowance, followed by a win in a five-furlong starter allowance. Her best performance in a stakes prior to this year was a third in the 2025 The Very One Stakes, when she finished less than a length behind winner Bosserati.

Merryman claimed Gift of Gab's dam World Gone Wrong for $7,500 at Laurel in February 2013 and campaigned her through a busy 13-start season in which she got the final of her 22 wins, for a $15,000 tag, at Penn National that July. The Proud Citizen mare earned $385,301 in 64 starts, and was bred for the first time the next year at age 8 to Cherokee's Boy, but didn't have her first foal until the following year, that being winner Jackgreerstubhutch. Gift of Gab is her second winner from three starters. World Gone Wrong has not produced a foal since 2021.