2021 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf: Annapolis runs to his looks
Once you see him out on the track, you understand it better, why Annapolis has been such a darling of the bettors in his two-start career.
The Pilgrim Stakes winner at odds of 3-5, Annapolis was a 13-10 favorite when he overcame a challenging trip for a first-time starter and won his career debut, a Saratoga turf route, by more than four lengths on Sept. 4. The Ramona Bass homebred, by War Front out of My Miss Sophia, still has some filling out to do, but top to bottom presents as a classic high-end Thoroughbred – big and strong, so much more physically mature than most of his 2-year-old cohort.
“I was told he was an exceptional foal and a grand yearling as well,” said trainer Todd Pletcher. “He came in with very high hopes, regally bred, a bigger and scopier War Front than many are. A classy horse with a great disposition. Throughout the summer, he just improved and improved.”
Annapolis, Pletcher said, also has done well coming out of the Oct. 4 Pilgrim and with all the love the betting public already has given the colt he could go to post favored Nov. 5 in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. Pletcher already has won this race, with Pluck in 2010, and also would run Royal Spirit at Del Mar if the colt can get into what will almost certainly be an oversubscribed field. Royal Spirit, still a maiden, finished an improved and appealing second behind Dakota Gold in the $500,000 Nownownow Stakes at Monmouth Park.
For now, Annapolis is the more advanced animal. First time out, he raced from eighth behind a 49-and-change half-mile fraction before overpowering his Saratoga foes, and in the Pilgrim, which had just four runners, he tracked the 48-and-change pace of Portfolio Company, a talented 2-year-old in his own right and another expected Juvenile Turf runner. Tactical versatility will be a must in the Juvenile Turf, run over a tight turf course with a huge field of largely inexperienced horses.
“It’s going to be the kind of race where you have to trip out,” Pletcher said. “He showed in his debut he can come from off it and reversed styles in second start, where we couldn’t let the one horse we had to beat get away.”
Pletcher trained Annapolis’s dam, My Miss Sophia, during the first part of her career and sent her out to a second-place finish in the 2014 Kentucky Oaks. War Front can get a dirt horse as well as turf runners, and it’s natural to wonder if Annapolis will get a chance to get onto the 2022 Triple Crown trail at some point.
“As we got him going, we put him on the grass and it was clearly an improvement, but as he’s matured and gotten a couple races, he’s training stronger on the dirt, as well,” said Pletcher. “It’s going to be a matter of when you might give it a try. We’ll come up with a plan for the spring, kind of play it by ear.”
Only two Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series winners – Albahr and Tiz the Bomb – are expected to be entered in the Juvenile Turf, and only seven horses have accumulated any qualifying points, three with six points and four with four points. The BC selection panel will face some tough choices filling out the field’s main body, which figures to be divided about equally between overseas and domestic entrants.