Bell's the One, Pessin coming into Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint under the radar
LEXINGTON, Ky. – What’s in a name? Neil Pessin knows, at least as it pertains to himself.
“This filly deserves more respect than what she gets,” Pessin said of his stable star Bell’s the One, “and if she was trained by somebody else, she’d probably get it.”
Perhaps in the hands of a trainer with a higher national profile Bell’s the One might indeed be more well known outside the tight circles in which Pessin travels. Bell’s the One, a 4-year-old filly owned by Bob Lothenbach, is a five-time stakes winner who has won seven of 14 career starts and nearly $800,000 – and yet she has not been the favorite so much as once. Her top three win mutuels: $67.80, $28.60, $28.20.
Bell’s the One, by Majesticperfection, won’t be favored in her next race, either. She’s the 5-1 third choice on the latest Daily Racing Form projections for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Keeneland, a seven-furlong race in which Gamine and Serengeti Empress are rated ahead of her. Preparations are going well toward the Nov. 7 race, as Bell’s the One went in a spirited 1:00.60 in a five-furlong in-company drill early Thursday at Churchill Downs with regular rider Corey Lanerie aboard. It was the bay filly’s fourth breeze since she nipped Serengeti Empress in a torrid battle in the Grade 1 Derby City Distaff on the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby card.
“She broke about five or six lengths behind her workmate and finished up on even terms at the wire,” said Pessin. “Corey just let her do her thing and said he could have blown by at any time.”
Pessin, 61, is a remarkably upbeat sort, the kind of fellow who makes you wonder how or why he can be smiling so broadly at 6:15 in the morning – pretty much every morning. In 35 years of training, Pessin has won just 214 races, and his only prior graded stakes wins came in 1993 and 2006. Those are the kinds of statistics the big-time trainers post in less than a single year.
Still, Pessin wouldn’t trade places with anyone, having endeared himself to a multitude of friends and colleagues on his circuit of New Orleans, Chicago, and Kentucky. His days in the spotlight have been few and far between, but he couldn’t care less. He’s got his first Breeders’ Cup starter upcoming, and it’s all plenty enough for him.
“I’m looking at it as just another race,” he said, “although it would be nice to win, especially more for the filly than myself. People keep selling her short, and I’d love to see her get the justification she deserves.”