Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies: Frizette runner-up My Happy Face won't run

Tom Keyser

My Happy Face, who finished second in the Frizette, will skip the Breeders' Cup and run in the Tempted at Aqueduct on Nov. 4

My Happy Face, a stubborn second to Dreaming of Julia in the Grade 1 Frizette at Belmont Park on Oct. 6, will not run in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita on Nov. 2, owner Michael Dubb confirmed Friday.

Instead, My Happy Face will make her next start in the Grade 3, $150,000 Tempted Stakes at Aqueduct on Nov. 4.

Dubb said immediately after the Frizette that he would most likely skip the Breeders’ Cup because he felt the race was too hard on his filly. But since the race, trainer Rudy Rodriguez said My Happy Face was doing well and he was urging Dubb to change his mind.

“Rudy wants to go, I’m overruling my trainer and staying home, I feel it’s in the best interest of the horse,” Dubb said. “I don’t think it’s in her best interest to put her on a plane and ship her to California and run in a race like that.”

Dubb said the fact that 2-year-olds will not be permitted to race on Lasix in this year’s Breeders’ Cup “was a consideration, but didn’t factor into my final decision.”

Dubb, a New York-based owner, expressed frustration that the Breeders’ Cup is being held at Santa Anita for the third time in five years – it will also be held at Santa Anita in 2013 – and that the event has not been held at Belmont since 2005.

“It does bother me that the Breeders’ Cup hasn’t been in New York since ’05,” said Dubb, who was named to the recently announced New York Racing Association Reorganization Board. “I don’t think it’s giving people on the East Coast a level playing field. I’m a New York guy, I want to support New York racing.”

Dubb is part-owner of Grace Hall, the 3-year-old filly who will run in the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic.

“Grace Hall is a seasoned 3-year-old who has shipped around and won at three or four different tracks,” Dubb said. “She has the possibility to be 3-year-old filly champion if she wins that race and that is hard to ignore.”