2021 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint: Ward enters trio of fillies in three-peat bid
DEL MAR, Calif. – If things go according to form in the opening race of the 2021 Breeders’ Cup, the powers that be may have to consider renaming the event the Wesley Ward Juvenile Turf Sprint. After all, Ward has won the last two runnings of a race only added to the Breeders’ Cup schedule in 2018, with Four Wheel Drive and Golden Pal, and will send out the two likely favorites, Averly Jane and Twilight Gleaming, in this year’s five-furlong turf dash on Friday at Del Mar.
Averly Jane and Twilight Gleaming are two of the three fillies Ward entered in the $1 million Juvenile Turf Sprint along with Kaufymaker. All three have plenty of experience facing the boys. They’ll take on nine rivals that include the undefeated One Timer and five European invaders led by the Group 1-placed pair of Armor and Go Bears Go.
Averly Jane comes into the Juvenile Turf Sprint undefeated and virtually untested in four starts, having won those races by a combined margin of 22 1/4 lengths. Her last three victories came in stakes races against males, the most recent a wire-to-wire three-length decision while making her grass debut in the Indian Summer Stakes four weeks earlier at Keeneland.
“She’s done everything right and she’s just fast, that’s the bottom line,” Ward said. “She won the [Kentucky Juvenile] at Churchill Downs easily but came out of the race with a minor shin, which knocked her out of going to England. But she’s since come back with two big efforts.
“I know there’s a lot of speed in the field, but we’re inside probably the fastest of the others, One Timer, so we gotta go. After all, it’s a sprint, right?
The worldly Twilight Gleaming returns to the United States for the first time since winning her turf bow by a widening 7 1/2 lengths on May 9 at Belmont Park. She has raced abroad in two subsequent outings, finishing a strong second in a field of 21 horses in the Group 2 Queen Mary at Ascot before traveling to France to prove a game and popular winner of the Prix de la Vallée d’Auge over soft ground on Aug. 7 at Deauville.
‘‘I thought it was best to give her plenty of time after she returned from Europe and she’s had great spacing now,” Ward said. “She’s doing fantastic, has turned in a good string of works, the last one with Kimari. She’s quick too and will be close from the start, although I look for her to sit just off the top two [Averly Jane and One Timer] during the early going.”
Kaufymaker proved no match for Averly Jane when a distant second in the Indian Summer. She too shipped across the Atlantic during the spring, finishing eighth against males going six furlongs in the Grade 2 Coventry Stakes on June 15 at Royal Ascot.
“I kind of outthought myself putting her in at six furlongs over there and her next start was at 6 1/2 furlongs, both races probably a stretch for her,” Ward explained. “But this one is five furlongs over firm ground, and she complements our other two horses well, so I think you’ll see an improved effort from her.”
As for starting three fillies against the boys in the Juvenile Turf Sprint, Ward sees it as perhaps more of an advantage than the disadvantage many might believe it to be.
“Running fillies against colts was always something I took a lot of criticism for early in my career, but not anymore,” Ward said. “Historically, fillies run great sprinting. Especially when they get to this level, I believe they are just as fast if not faster than the colts.”
One Timer also is well traveled. Perfect in three starts, he won his debut over the synthetic track at Arlington Park by more than a dozen lengths, the Victoria Stakes over a similar surface at Woodbine on July 31, and the Speakeasy in his first outing on grass last month at Santa Anita when outlasting Time to Party by three–quarters of a length. Time to Party also is part of the Juvenile Turf Sprint lineup.
“He’s shipped around because with young horses you just have to try to find a spot, our goal with him was always to get here, and everything has seemed to work out well,” trainer Larry Rivelli said of One Timer. “He’s nice and acclimated now having been out here over a month and a half and couldn’t be doing any better.
“I’ve had four or five other Breeders’ Cup starters, and this is probably my best shot to win one.”
Speed is One Timer’s forte, and while there’s plenty of it signed on in the race, as one might expect, Rivelli said he has no plans of changing that style now.
“We’re outside of Wesley’s horse [Averly Jane], which is good and we won’t be taking back for sure, we’ll be going from the get-go,” Rivelli said.
Armor overcame a troubled start, splitting rivals late to miss by less than a length when third in the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes at Newmarket in his most recent race. The outing was the sixth for the English-bred Armor, who was a Group 3 winner at Goodwood earlier this summer.
Go Bears Go finished just a neck behind Armor while racing forwardly placed in the Middle Park. He became Group 1-placed when he finished third as the favorite in the Phoenix Stakes at The Curragh in Ireland seven weeks earlier. He will wear blinkers for the first time in his U.S. debut.
Another key European contender is Twilight Jet, easily the most experienced member of the field, who exits a well-graded two-length victory against Group 2 company a month earlier at Newmarket. Twilight Jet blew out nicely from the gate here Tuesday.
Derrynane and Run Curtis Run are coming off career-best efforts in their most recent outings, the former capturing the Woodbine Cares Stakes by an impressive 2 3/4 lengths, the latter finishing a solid second in the Grade 3 Futurity while making his turf debut last month at Belmont Park. Both, however, are poorly drawn in post positions 11 and 12, respectively.