$1 million purse brings together competitive field for Distaff Turf Mile
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Bill Mott took a look at the prospective field for the Grade 2 Churchill Distaff Turf Mile, a one-mile race with a $1 million purse. To hell with the second-level allowance he had circled for the French import Temptable. Why not go for the gold?
Temptable and eight others are going for it. Solid horses populate this field, no doubt, but million-dollar-purse horses? Not exactly.
Temptable might be good enough – or she might not. The 4-year-old Juddmonte homebred made her first seven starts in France for trainer Francis-Henri Graffard. She’s no star and lacks a group stakes race on her overseas résumé, but deploying a front-running style, Temptable improved throughout 2025.
Temptable last fall shipped to Del Mar for the Grade 3 Goldikova Stakes – and got an entirely different kind of trip than her norm. Drawn wide, she wound up racing near the back of an 11-horse field, turning into the short Del Mar homestretch with too much to do. Considering circumstances, her seventh-place finish wasn’t bad.
Mott saddles Temptable for the first time and doesn’t know exactly what to expect, but he likes what he’s seen during the morning.
“The way she trains on dirt, it almost makes you wonder if she could race on it,” Mott said.
Pin Up Betty merits favoritism. Racing for the first time after a winter break, she made a mid-race move to the lead before getting tagged late, losing the 2025 Distaff Turf Mile by a neck.
“I thought she was really unlucky,” trainer Mike Maker said.
Unlike last year, Pin Up Betty comes into the Distaff Turf Mile already having raced this year, finishing a solid fifth in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley at Keeneland. Maker said the mare came out of the race in good shape but doesn’t know that she’ll perform better with a prep than without one. Pin Up Betty would prefer a half-furlong more distance, but racing over the local course mitigates that.
“She loves Churchill,” Maker said.
The morning line has Sweet Rebecca as the 5-2 favorite. Maybe. Sweet Rebecca has gone 2 for 2 this year after joining trainer Brendan Walsh’s barn, but her last-start score in the Sand Springs at Gulfstream came by only a neck against lesser competition than Saturday’s.
The Chad Brown-trained Maggie Go finished third in the Sand Springs and looks less interesting than Brown’s other runner, Portfolio Duration. An unlucky loser of her debut two Februarys ago at Tampa Bay, Portfolio Duration didn’t run again until December, as she was kept away from the races by what Brown termed “some minor, annoying issues.”
Her comeback start yielded a galloping Tampa maiden victory, and Brown timed her next out, a March 28 Tampa allowance – another laughably easy win – to get Portfolio Duration to a stakes race the first weekend in May. Brown considered the Beaugay at Aqueduct, wound up sending Dynamic Pricing there instead, and has Portfolio Duration in with a chance making her stakes debut for $1 million.
“She’s lightly raced, quite talented. I think she can do a mile if she gets a little bit of pace,” Brown said.
Classic Q should set the pace under John Velazquez, and she might not come back.
“If we don’t get too much rain, I think she can win,” trainer Mark Casse said.
Much rain did fall Monday and Tuesday nights, yet the Churchill course played firm and quick Wednesday, with no more precipitation forecast before the weekend. Classic Q last started Feb. 28 in the Honey Fox at Gulfstream, where she set the pace and finished second. The filly who ran her down, Lush Lips, rates among the top middle-distance female turf horses in the land.
Movin On Up isn’t without a puncher’s chance, and Italian Soiree won an April 12 turf sprint allowance at Laurel, her first race for trainer Graham Motion.
“The whole idea was to try and stretch her out this year,” Motion said.
And for a million bucks, why not the Distaff Turf Mile?
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