2021 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf: Hello You must get the distance
DEL MAR, Calif. – Midway through Friday’s Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar, there is a likelihood Hello You will be racing near the pace.
Hello You ran in that fashion in the Group 2 Rockfel Stakes at Newmarket Racecourse in England on Sept. 24, stalking the pace then closing with a flourish to win the seven-furlong race by 1 1/2 lengths. The $1 million Juvenile Fillies Turf is run at a mile, a furlong farther than Hello You ever has run.
Despite her Rockfel victory, Hello You is 10-1 on the morning line.
Hello You races for Avo Racing and trainer David Loughnane. Loughnane, 34, has Breeders’ Cup runners for the first time this year. Earlier this week, he spoke confidently that the added distance and firm turf will not hinder Hello You, who won the Rockfel on a Newmarket course with an uphill finish. The turf was rated good to firm.
“It was quick ground in the Rockfel and she handled it absolutely fine,” he said. “It’s a stiff finish at Newmarket and she powered up that hill. She was arguably doing her best work at the end.”
Hello You, an Irish-bred by Invincible Spirit, arrived at Del Mar last weekend.
“My biggest concern was how she’d handle the journey over,” Loughnane said. “She got wound up the first couple of days, but she’s settled down.
“I’ve been a huge fan of this filly since the day she stepped into the yard. An opportunity like this doesn’t come around too often.”
Hello You is one of four sprint stakes winners who will race at a mile for the first time in the Juvenile Fillies Turf. The others are Bubble Rock, Malavath, and Koala Princess.
The American stakes winners Cairo Memories, California Angel, Consumer Spending, Sail By, and Turnerloose, and the stakes-placed fillies Helens Well and Pizza Bianca have run well at a mile or farther.
Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf runners Cachet and Mise En Scene were third and fourth in a highly rated running of the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket on Oct. 8.
American-trained fillies have won the last seven runnings of the Juvenile Fillies Turf, and Pizza Bianca, Bubble Rock, and Consumer Spending appear to have leading roles among the domestic runners.
Pizza Bianca, trained by Christophe Clement, was second in the Grade 1 Natalma Stakes at a mile at Woodbine on Sept. 19 in her stakes debut, finishing 2 1/4 lengths behind Wild Beauty.
Clement’s lone concern is Del Mar’s firm turf. Pizza Bianca has raced on good turf in both her starts, beginning with a win in a maiden race at Saratoga.
“It’s a bit of a question mark,” Clement said. “She trained well on firm turf in the summer.
“The last race was impressive. The winner ran a freakish kind of race.”
Trainer Chad Brown has won a record five of the 13 runnings of the Juvenile Fillies Turf. Brown starts Consumer Spending, the comfortable winner of the Selima Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Laurel Park on Oct. 2, and Haughty, who was disqualified from a debut win going a mile on turf for causing interference, then recorded a stylish win in a maiden special weight race at 1 1/16 miles on turf at Keeneland on Oct. 17.
“It was a questionable call,” Brown said of the disqualification. “It was unfortunate. It put us in a tough spot. I couldn’t get in a stakes anywhere.”
Haughty was entered for the Grade 2 Jessamine Stakes at Keeneland on Oct. 13, but failed to draw into the race from the also-eligible list and ran in the maiden race at Keeneland instead.
Consumer Spending will be ridden for the first time by top California jockey Flavien Prat.
“She will have to step up,” Brown said. “She didn’t beat anybody important. She’s an improving horse. She will like firm ground. If she draws a good post and gets a good trip, she can be in the mix.”
Koala Princess was held out of the early October preps by trainer Arnaud Delacour after a win in the Ainsworth Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs at Kentucky Downs on Sept. 12. Koala Princess closed from eighth of 11 to win the Ainsworth by 2 1/2 lengths under Joel Rosario.
“I think a mile on firm turf will be good for her,” Delacour said. “I’m not sure about much longer. That would have been a question mark.
“I hope she can break and put herself in a good spot and relax and settle and be part of it at the end.”
Rosario also rode Pizza Bianca in the Natalma. Jose Ortiz will ride Pizza Bianca on Friday.
Last year, Aunt Pearl won the Grade 2 Jessamine Stakes at Keeneland and the Juvenile Fillies Turf there a few weeks later. This year, California Angel won the Jessamine at 17-1 with a late rally. California Angel has been far back early in each of her three starts, but trainer George Leonard said she has shown speed in the mornings.
“In the races, she has been a little green,” he said. “That is not her M.O. I know she has so much more potential.”
Aunt Pearl was trained by Brad Cox, who has two hopes this year with the stakes winners Bubble Rock and Turnerloose.
Bubble Rock won the Grade 3 Matron Stakes at six furlongs on turf at Belmont Park on Oct. 9 when ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr. Bubble Rock will face a distance test under Ortiz on Friday.
“Obviously, we’re hopeful we stretch,” Cox said. “Irad made the comment from the beginning that she will stretch.”
Turnerloose won the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Fillies Turf at a mile on Sept. 6, and was third by a neck after setting the pace in the Jessamine on a “good” turf course.
“I don’t think that was great ground to be going that quick on,” Cox said. “It wasn’t her going. We’re hopeful she can relax.”