Breeders' Cup Clocker: Best Performance goes to school
BELMONT PARK MONDAY
WEATHER: FOGGY
TRACK: FAST
TEMP.: 57
By Mike Welsch
ELMONT, N.Y. – Class was in session Monday morning at Belmont Park for Best Performance, with professors Christophe Clement and Joel Rosario designing a workout to help school the multiple graded stakes-placed 2-year-old for her upcoming assignment in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.
Fog rolled in before dawn here Monday and did not burn off entirely until after 8 a.m., affecting both the main and training tracks. But the fog cleared before two of the morning’s three potential Breeders’ Cup starters, including Best Performance, went out to breeze over the main track following the renovation break.
BEST PERFORMANCE (Juvenile Fillies Turf) – Although she will remain on grass following a solid second-place finish behind Significant Form in the Grade 3 Miss Grillo, Best Performance got herself a very good schooling over the main track Monday working in company with the older turf stakes winner Paige. Best Performance began two lengths back, with Rosario putting her right in behind her target, allowing her to take a ton of kickback before easing out to gain a short advantage at the wire after four furlongs in 24.33 seconds and 48.88. Best Performance then edged clear from her vastly more experienced partner when continuing out another very strong eighth-mile past the wire to complete five furlongs in 1:01.48 while caked with dirt from head to toe.
PURE SENSATION (Turf Sprint) – Where this work actually began was hard to tell, with fog shrouding the turn at both the half-mile and three-eighth poles. Pure Sensation was moving well from the quarter pole through the wire in 25.14 with regular rider Kendrick Carmouche appearing to gear her down some at that point to prevent her from doing too much coming off a bullet half-mile drill just nine days earlier.
BY THE MOON (Filly and Mare Sprint) – She was the first worker immediately after the break and looked sharp breezing an easy five furlongs in 24.30, 35.71, and 1:00.69, going effortlessly with her ears pricked coming to the wire before galloping out six furlongs in 1:14.60.
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Weekend workers
All told, 23 possible Breeders’ Cup starters worked at Belmont Park over the weekend, 13 of those from the barn of trainer Chad Brown. Arguably the best of Brown’s baker’s dozen was Paulassilverlining, who made a bit of a cuppy track look lightning fast early Saturday breezing in company with Jamyson ’n Ginger for the Filly and Mare Sprint. The pair broke off from the five-furlong pole in a leisurely 14 for their opening eighth, then came home a final half-mile in 47.19 with Paulassilverlining under a good hold throughout, working outside her workmate who had to be asked along some to keep pace.
The other Brown main-track workers Saturday included Good Magic (Juvenile) who turned in an easy maintenance half-mile in 50.91; Voting Control (Juvenile Turf), much the best in company with Bricks and Mortar, cruising throughout with Javier Castellano aboard; Practical Joke (Dirt Mile), with a workmanlike five furlongs going in company in 1:02.06; Carina Mia (Filly and Mare Sprint), who looked very good completing a 48.85 half-mile going easily with her ears pricked; and Dacita (Filly and Mare Turf), with a maintenance half-mile in 50.20.
Brown’s large turf contingent on Saturday was led by Lady Eli (Filly and Mare Turf), who looked good as usual going five-eighths alongside Elysea’s World in 1:00.14 with a very energetic gallop-out; the well-matched team of Beach Patrol (Turf) and Fanciful Angel (Turf), both very impressive completing a restrained five furlongs in 1:02.51 with a very big gallop-out; and Significant Form (Juvenile Fillies Turf), who pinned her ears back fighting it out to the wire nose to nose with the older Grade 3 winner Rymska going a sharp five-eighths in 59.65.
Also on Saturday, Firenze Fire (Juvenile) put in a maintenance half-mile in 50.61 over the training track punctuated by an impressive quarter-mile gallop-out under Irad Ortiz Jr. Mind Your Biscuits (Sprint) easily handled an overmatched workmate, going four furlongs with Rosario up in 47.91, but without the real quick turn of foot he’s shown at the end of his works before.
Five likely Breeders’ Cup starters worked here Sunday. Separationofpowers (Juvenile Fillies) and Caledonia Road (Juvenile Fillies), first and second in the recent Frizette, went minutes apart on the main track. Separationofpowers went a very easy four furlongs in company in 48.53, and Caledonia Road put in a maintenance half-mile, also in company, in 49.07. Both galloped out willingly another eighth-mile beyond the wire.
Annals of Time (Mile), War Flag (Filly and Mare Turf) and Capla Temptress (Juvenile Fillies Turf) all worked during a very busy turf session. Annals of Time and War Flag both saved their best for last, cruising to the top of the stretch and completing their final quarter-miles in 23.04 and 22.68, respectively. Capla Temptress went an easy five-eighths in 1:02.40 before galloping out with impressive energy through the wire and into the clubhouse turn.