BC Juvenile: Short on seasoning, long on lineage

ELMONT, N.Y. - Dr. Pleasure is short on seasoning. Ivan Denisovich has never raced on dirt. Both will be big prices in the $1.5 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile. But success for either one could be in the genes.

Dr. Pleasure is out of the dam Beautiful Pleasure, who won the 1999 Breeders' Cup Distaff. Ivan Denisovich is out of the dam Hollywood Wildcat, who won the 1993 Distaff and who has already produced 2000 Breeders' Cup Mile winner War Chant. My Flag and Personal Ensign are the only other Breeders' Cup winners to have produced a Cup winner.

Both Dr. Pleasure and Ivan Denisovich have shown glimpses of talent. Dr. Pleasure won his maiden at first asking at Saratoga, taking a 6 1/2-furlong allowance race by 7 1/4 lengths while earning a solid Beyer Speed Figure of 85.

Because of his lack of experience, Dr. Pleasure was pointed to the Cowdin on Oct. 2 rather than the Grade 1 Champagne on Oct. 8. After breaking well, Dr. Pleasure backed up around the turn when he started getting dirt kicked in his face. When jockey Edgar Prado got him to the outside in the stretch, Dr. Pleasure closed well and finished second, 3 1/2 lengths behind gate to wire winner He's Got Grit.

"When it started hitting him it was sort of like 'Whoa,'" said Donna Ward, the assistant to her husband, John. "I would have really been disappointed had he not rallied himself back together and got his mind on what he knew he was supposed to be doing."

Donna Ward also said that Dr. Pleasure had a little mucus in his lungs after the Cowdin and coughed for several days afterward.

Ward said she has been pleased with how Dr. Pleasure has trained since the Cowdin and thinks the Breeders' Cup is a better spot than the $250,000 Nashua at one mile.

"The mile and a sixteenth is in our favor more than a mile," Ward said. "I think immaturity is still against us."

Ward will need to find a rider as Prado, who has ridden Dr. Pleasure in his first two starts, is committed to ride Henny Hughes in the Juvenile.

Ivan Denisovich has 2 wins from 5 starts. He is coming off a fourth-place finish in the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes, a six-furlong stakes on turf. The chart indicates that he dwelt at the start, but trainer Aidan O'Brien said such was not the case.

"I don't think he dwelt," O'Brien said. "If you saw the tape, he broke with the others. He struggled a bit with the ground. It was very soft and [jockey] Kieren [Fallon] is adamant he wants fast ground. We always thought he was a really nice colt, and we always wanted to try fast ground and we never got it."

In 2001, the last time the Breeders' Cup was held at Belmont Park, O'Brien won the Juvenile with Johannesburg, who had gone undefeated in turf sprints in Europe before beating North America's best.

* At Turfway Park, Stream Cat worked five furlongs in 1:00.20. Gary Stevens was up for the move and will ride him in the race, trainer Patrick Biancone said.

"I think he's more a Derby horse than a Breeders' Cup horse," Biancone said. "He's ready, he's well, he runs. We'll see what happens."

* Sharp Attack, the first also-eligible in the Juvenile, was removed from consideration for the race, according to Breeders' Cup officials. The defection makes Bear Character the first also-eligible.