Alms to get distance test in Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf

ARCADIA, Calif. – The only undefeated stakes winner pre-entered for the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Nov. 1 at Santa Anita is a filly yet to start at the race distance of a mile.

Alms, trained by Mike Stidham, has won both of her starts, both at six furlongs on turf at Belmont Park – a maiden special weight race on Sept. 19 and the Grade 3 Matron Stakes on Oct. 5. In both races, Alms rallied wide from off the pace to win by at least a length.

Wednesday, Alms was one of 19 2-year-old fillies pre-entered in the $1 million Juvenile Fillies Turf, a race trainer Stidham admits will be a test.

“On numbers, we’ll have to move forward and prove we can be as effective going two turns as we were at one,” Stidham said. “That remains to be seen. We thought she deserves a shot.”

Owned by Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin Racing, Alms won the Matron Stakes by 1 1/4 lengths as the 3-5 favorite. Alms is by City Zip and is out of Charity Belle. She is a half-sister to Hallie Belle, an Empire Maker mare who won minor stakes at a mile on turf at Fair Grounds and Laurel in 2017 and 2018 for Godolphin and Stidham.

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“The City Zips that we’ve had will get up to a mile,” Stidham said. “Her female family indicates she can get a mile.”

Jose Lezcano rode Alms in the $150,000 Matron and will have the mount in the Juvenile Fillies Turf, Stidham said.

The Juvenile Fillies Turf field is led by the stakes winners Albigna, Daahyeh, and Sweet Melania.

Among the others pre-entered, Albigna won the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac at a mile on soft turf at Longchamp in Paris on Oct. 6, three days before Sweet Melania dominated the Grade 2 Jessamine Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Keeneland, winning by 5 1/2 lengths.

Daahyeh won the Grade 2 Rockfel Stakes at seven furlongs at Newmarket Racecourse on Sept. 27 as the 6-5 favorite. The Newmarket course has an uphill finish, suggesting Daahyeh will be effective at a mile.

Those fillies earned automatic berths to the Juvenile Fillies Turf for those wins, as did Abscond, who won the Grade 1 Natalma Stakes at a mile on turf Sept. 15 at Woodbine.

The race will have a maximum field of 14. Wednesday, the Breeders’ Cup announced that Precious Moments, Croughavouke, Princesa Caroline, Unforgetable, and Applecross were not selected for the race. They will join the field if there is a defection among the 14 selected fillies.

Precious Moments, a maiden race winner at The Curragh in Ireland on Oct. 13 in her seventh start, is trained by Aidan O’Brien, who has the stakes winners Etoile and Tango among the 14 selected runners in the Juvenile Fillies Turf field.