Breeders' Cup Distaff loses likely pacesetter Fighting Mad
ARCADIA, Calif. – The pace scenario of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff just got softer. Front-runner Fighting Mad, a Grade 1 winner in California, will skip the Distaff and aim for a stakes race in January.
“We’re going to pass,” Fighting Mad’s trainer Bob Baffert said Monday. “She had to have won her last start, and she didn’t. I was disappointed in her race. You can’t go into the Breeders’ Cup with hesitation.”
Fighting Mad briefly emerged as the top older filly or mare this year in California, but she finished third as the odds-on favorite in the Grade 2 Zenyatta Stakes on Sept. 27 at Santa Anita, a length and a half behind winner Harvest Moon.
The defeat was Fighting Mad’s first loss in a route. She wired the Grade 2 Santa Maria Stakes in May at Santa Anita, followed by a front-running victory in the Grade 1 Clement Hirsch on Aug. 2 at Del Mar. The Hirsch was a Win and You’re In for the Distaff.
Fighting Mad, who probably would have set the pace in the mile and one-eighth Distaff, has never raced beyond a mile and a sixteenth. Baffert said her objective is the Grade 3, $300,000 Houston Ladies Classic, a mile and one-sixteenth race on Jan. 31 at Sam Houston Park.
In addition to the defection of Fighting Mad, Midwest-based front-runner Lady Kate also will skip the Distaff. Lady Kate finished second in the Grade 1 La Troienne Stakes on Sept. 7 at Churchill Downs, followed by a fourth in the Grade 1 Spinster on Oct. 4 at Keeneland. Trainer Eddie Kenneally confirmed Monday Lady Kate would not run in the Distaff.
The likelihood of a tepid pace in the Distaff benefits early favorites Monomoy Girl and Swiss Skydiver. Both are pace-pressers who have won graded stakes in wire-to-wire fashion.