Bolshoi Ballet to use Joe Hirsch Turf Classic as bridge to Breeders' Cup Turf
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The Ireland-based Bolshoi Ballet has recorded his last two victories in the U.S, albeit two years apart. He is expected to make another cross-Atlantic trip next month for the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic, trainer Aidan O’Brien said Monday.
Bolshoi Ballet was a dominant 4 1/2-length winner of Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Sword Dancer Stakes, which earned him an automatic berth into the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 4.
O’Brien said the Breeders’ Cup is the goal and the Joe Hirsch will be the way to get him there.
O’Brien said the Sword Dancer, for which Bolshoi Ballet earned a 107 Beyer Speed Figure, “was one of his most impressive races. He ran well at Ascot for a horse that was ridden very prominent.”
Bolshoi Ballet was coming off a sixth-place finish in the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth at Ascot in June.
The Sword Dancer broke a nine-race losing streak for Bolshoi Ballet, whose last victory came in the Grade 1 Belmont Derby on July 10, 2021.
The Joe Hirsch will be run at Aqueduct. Christophe Clement, the trainer of Sword Dancer runner-up Soldier Rising, said that he might be inclined to skip that race because Aqueduct tends to get speed favoring and “that’s against me,” he said.
Soldier Rising has finished second in all three Grade 1 turf marathons run in New York this year – the Man o’ War, Manhattan, and Sword Dancer. He could be sent to the Grade 1 Kentucky Downs Turf Cup on Sept. 9 or the Grade 1 Canadian International at Woodbine on Oct. 8, Clement said.
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