Breeders' Cup Distaff: Adare Manor plays the hometown heroine
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ARCADIA, Calif. – The role of Breeders’ Cup Distaff favorite will solidify after the Grade 1 Spinster Stakes on Sunday at Keeneland, but in the meantime there is no doubt about the identity of the hometown favorite.
Adare Manor scored her sixth Santa Anita victory last Sunday, wiring the Grade 2 Zenyatta Stakes in a virtual public workout over three rivals. It gets tougher for Adare Manor on Nov. 4 in the BC Distaff at Santa Anita.
“There’s some good fillies out there,” trainer Bob Baffert acknowledged, and some arrived early at Santa Anita, including Grade 1/Group 1 winners Clairiere and Belleza de Arteaga. Shipping is not required for locally based Adare Manor. As Baffert noted, the Distaff “is home, here, so hopefully we can keep her happy. She’s at the top of her game right now.”
So is Idiomatic, the Kentucky-based filly whose smashing wet-track victory in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign is one reason she is the early Distaff favorite by Daily Racing Form. Idiomatic (3-1) and Nest (4-1), DRF’s one-two favorites, both entered the Spinster. The Distaff third choice is Adare Manor (5-1).
Plans are uncertain for Distaff candidate Secret Oath, who did not enter the Spinster as expected. The 3-year-old filly Randomized, winner of the Grade 1 Alabama, goes Sunday in the Grade 2 Beldame at Belmont at Aqueduct. For remaining Distaff candidates, the preps are complete.
Search Results won a Grade 3 at Churchill Downs last month and worked Tuesday at Belmont. Clairiere, usually based in the East and Midwest, is at Santa Anita following an uncharacteristic misfire Aug. 25 in the Personal Ensign, fifth by more than 17 lengths.
Belleza de Arteaga shipped from Argentina with a nine-race win streak, including three Group 1s on turf and dirt. Wet Paint, runner-up Aug. 19 in the Alabama, trains into the Distaff. Desert Dawn, runner-up in the Zenyatta, remains on target for the race.
Plans are pending for Pretty Mischevious, a three-time Grade 1 winner and the country’s most accomplished 3-year-old filly. Trainer Brendan Walsh said this week the Distaff has not been ruled out. Ceiling Crusher, who defeated Pretty Mischevious in the Grade 1 Cotillion, will not be supplemented to the Distaff.
Adare Manor, owned by Michael Lund Peterson, would be Baffert’s first Distaff winner with his 10th Distaff starter. Notwithstanding proven form at Santa Anita and four straight graded wins, the challenge for Adare Manor is to prove she is as good as her record. Her current win streak was achieved as an odds-on favorite in four- and five-horse fields.
What Adare Manor does have is size and speed.
“Every time I saddle her, she seems like she’s getting bigger,” Baffert said. “She’s like an amazon, she likes to run freely. She’s got a great mind, doesn’t get excited, doesn’t get hot. The older they get, the better they get.”
Adare Manor, a 4-year-old by Uncle Mo, has won seven races and $981,600 from 13 starts. Plans call for her to race next season at age 5.
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