2021 Breeders' Cup Classic: Stilleto Boy showing enough to justify taking a shot
Is it possible to buy a Breeders’ Cup Classic runner for less than $500,000 less than four months before the event? Yes, yes it is.
That horse is Stilleto Boy, who might not have even been a blip on the Classic radar when purchased for $420,000 on July 12 at the Fasig-Tipton horses of racing age sale. But Stilleto Boy has run himself into the race with good efforts in his last two starts, most recently a second-place finish to Medina Spirit in the Grade 1 Awesome Again last Saturday at Santa Anita.
Prior to that, Stilleto Boy was third behind Medina Spirit following a compromised trip in the Shared Belief at Del Mar, where the Classic will be held Nov. 6. He has made three starts for owner Steve Moger since the sale, for earnings of $75,000.
“We want to run in the Classic,” said Ed Moger Jr., the trainer of Stilleto Boy and Steve’s brother. “Hopefully he keeps thriving. He’s a nice little horse. He ran well the other day.”
Moger said Stilleto Boy would also be pre-entered in the Dirt Mile only if it appears the Classic would oversubscribe and have more than the maximum 14 runners; that seems doubtful, so Stilleto Boy should get in.
“I was really happy with his race,” Moger said, referring to the Awesome Again. “It was a super-tough field.”
Stilleto Boy, sent off at 54-1, was five lengths behind Medina Spirit, but beat every older horse in the race, finishing two lengths in front of third-place Express Train. He has been ridden by Kent Desormeaux in all three of his starts since moving to Moger’s barn.
“Kent always liked the horse,” Moger said.
Stilleto Boy, 3, is a gelding who was sold to dissolve a partnership. In his first seven starts, for trainer and co-owner Doug Anderson, he won twice, most notably capturing the Iowa Derby 10 days before he went through the ring.
Steve Moger is the president and chief executive of Nutraceutix, which manufactures and supplies probiotics. He lives in Bellevue, Wash., near Seattle, and according to real estate records once owned a home that previously was owned by basketball Hall of Famer Gary Payton.
The Awesome Again was one of three preps last Saturday for the Classic, and all had formful results. Medina Spirit was favored, Art Collector and Maxfield finished one-two as the top two choices in the Grade 1 Woodward at Belmont, and Knicks Go, the favorite for the Classic on the line of Daily Racing Form’s Brad Free, was a four-length winner of Grade 3 Lukas Classic at 1-10.
Trainer Bill Mott said Art Collector would train at Saratoga for the next 2 1/2 weeks, and his intent is to ship the horse to Del Mar on Oct. 26 and perhaps have his final workout for the Classic there.
“I just want to get out there,” Mott said.
Del Mar is closed. The stable area reopens Oct. 23 and the main track reopens for training Oct. 25.
Mott said that Forza Di Oro, fifth of six in the Woodward, has been removed from Breeders’ Cup consideration.
Also removed from the potential Classic field is Tizamagician, who finished fifth of eight in the Awesome Again after finishing second to Tripoli in Del Mar’s Pacific Classic in his prior start. His trainer, Richard Mandella, said Tizamagician would be pointed to the Grade 2, $250,000 Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance Stakes at 1 5/8 miles on the Nov. 6 undercard at Del Mar. The TAA once was known as the Breeders’ Cup Marathon.
“He came out of the race with what looks like a twisted ankle,” Mandella said. “There was a little bit of swelling, but it went down right away, and he X-rayed clean. He’s sound. We’ll re-X-ray again in a couple of weeks to be sure. But right now it just looks like a wrenched ankle. He should come around fast, and as long as nothing comes up he’ll have no trouble making the race.”
Tizamagician excels at longer distances. Earlier this year, he won the Grade 3 Tokyo City at Santa Anita and Grade 3 Cougar II at Del Mar and was second in the Grade 2 Brooklyn at Belmont, all at 1 1/2 miles on dirt.