Alcibiades should prove pivotal prep for Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies
When Keeneland switched its main track from Polytrack to dirt last autumn, one goal was to make its stakes races more significant as preps for the Breeders’ Cup in the fall.
It didn’t take long for that to occur. Take Charge Brandi, racing in the opening-day Alcibiades in 2014, set a wicked pace and faded to eighth but returned the following month to pull off a front-running upset in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies by outlasting Alcibiades runner-up Top Decile.
Friday’s Grade 1, $400,000 Alcibiades at Keeneland could prove a key prep for the second straight year, particularly since the fillies running in it will have a race over the track if they move on to the Breeders’ Cup at meet’s end.
A Win and You’re In Breeders’ Cup Challenge race, the 1 1/16-mile Alcibiades drew 11 entrants, led by graded stakes winners Dothraki Queen and Just Wicked.
The Alcibiades, like all 1 1/16-mile dirt races at Keeneland, will begin and end at what is otherwise the sixteenth pole.
Alcibiades, Race 9
KEY CONTENDERS
Dothraki Queen (Last 3 Beyers: 73-61)
◗ After winning first out on the Ellis Park turf, she made the successful switch to dirt for trainer Ken McPeek in the Grade 2 Pocahontas at Churchill Downs on Sept. 12, roaring up the inside past the leaders under a rail-skimming ride from Corey Lanerie.
◗ With the Pocahontas being a Win and You’re In race, she already has earned an expenses-paid spot in the Breeders’ Cup starting gate.
Just Wicked (Last 3 Beyers: 63-83-76)
◗ Backed to 1-2 favoritism in the Pocahontas after winning the Grade 2 Adirondack at Saratoga, she was dull throughout, lacking her customary speed and offering just a mild bid on the second turn before flattening out to be fourth, beaten six lengths. That effort was in contrast to how well she ran in three preceding starts, most notably in the Adirondack, where she outran Tonasah and earned an 83 Beyer Speed Figure, the highest posted by any filly in the Alcibiades.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 11 Just Wicked. Trainer Steve Asmussen is 13-5-1-2 with a $4.27 ROI over the past five years in dirt graded stakes with horses routing for the second time. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
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Gomo (Last 3 Beyers: 66-72-60)
◗ An invader from California, she is returning to perhaps her best surface, dirt, after a third-place finish in the Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf, in which she was edged a nose for the place.
◗ Ran second to the speedy Pretty N Cool when sprinting in the Grade 2 Sorrento earlier at Del Mar.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 1 Gomo. Trainer Doug O’Neill is 19-0-3-1 over the past five years going turf to dirt in graded stakes. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
Lookout Sister (Last 3 Beyers: 73-60-56)
◗ A winner of two of three starts, she has gotten faster in each of her three races and co-owns with Dothraki Queen the top last-race Beyer, a 73, posted in winning the restricted Small Wonder Stakes at Delaware Park on Sept. 12.
◗ She is untested at a route but is by Giant’s Causeway, whose progeny typically appreciate racing longer distances.