Breeders' Cup Distaff: 3-year-old fillies prepare to meet older

The turn of the season to fall traditionally signals the time for 3-year-olds to graduate to facing their elders. That collision course looks especially meaningful in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff – this year restored to the Saturday program – which will feature a stellar group of 3-year-old fillies, led by Kentucky Oaks winner Monomoy Girl.

Since the Distaff was first run on the inaugural Breeders’ Cup program in 1984, 10 3-year-old fillies have won – Sacahuista (1987), Dance Smartly (1991), Hollywood Wildcat (1993), Ajina (1997), Spain (2000), Unbridled Elaine (2001), Ashado (2004), Royal Delta (2011), Beholder (2013), and Untapable (2014). Ashado and Untapable also won the Kentucky Oaks in the same season. All but Spain and Unbridled Elaine were the divisional Eclipse Award champions.

Monomoy Girl scored consecutive Grade 1 victories this spring and summer in the Ashland, Kentucky Oaks, Acorn, and Coaching Club American Oaks. Her streak was snapped when she edged Midnight Bisou – whom she had beaten twice previously – in the Cotillion on Sept. 22, but was disqualified to second for interference after drifting in the stretch.

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Monomoy Girl returned to her Churchill Downs base the following day, and trainer Brad Cox said that he was “just going to turn the page and go on to the Breeders’ Cup.”

Also returning to Churchill Downs were Cotillion second- and third-place finishers Midnight Bisou and Wonder Gadot. Midnight Bisou, winner of the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks earlier in the year, finished third in the Kentucky Oaks behind Monomoy Girl and Wonder Gadot. She then won the Grade 2 Mother Goose and was second to Monomoy Girl in the Coaching Club and third behind Eskimo Kisses in the Grade 1 Alabama.

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Wonder Gadot had an adventurous summer campaign following the Oaks, winning the first two legs of the Canadian Triple Crown before finishing last in the Travers. She rebounded somewhat to be a distant third in the Cotillion.

Off her breakthrough victory in the Alabama, Eskimo Kisses is set to test her elders in the Grade 1 Spinister Oct. 7 at Keeneland.

Meanwhile, 2017 Oaks winner and Distaff runner-up Abel Tasman, winner of back-to-back Grade 1 events in New York, appears to be the best older female left standing in a division plagued by injuries.

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Elate, who won the Delaware Handicap before finishing a close second to Abel Tasman in a roughly run Personal Ensign, was considered possible for either the Distaff or Breeders’ Cup Classic. However, she was recently declared out of the Grade 1 Beldame Stakes at Belmont with a splint injury that puts her Breeders’ Cup participation in doubt.

Champion Unique Bella, who added the Grade 1 Beholder Mile and Clement L. Hirsch to her résumé this year, was retired in August due to an injury sustained in a workout. La Force, second to Unique Bella in the Beholder and Hirsch, will have a chance for a coming-out party in the Grade 1 Zenyatta on Sunday at Santa Anita. Abel Tasman is possible for the Zenyatta.

Blue Prize has emerged as a player by virtue of her back-to-back graded stakes victories at Breeders’ Cup host track Churchill Downs, but has yet to tackle the divisional heavyweights. Farrell also has demonstrated a fondness for Churchill, but may run in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.

– additional reporting by Jim Dunleavy