Breeders’ Cup Distaff: Pletcher banking on talented trio

Trainer Todd Pletcher has an advantage in the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Distaff – volume.

Got Lucky won the Grade 1 Spinster Stakes last weekend at Keeneland, joining Curalina and Stopchargingmaria as legitimate Distaff contenders for Pletcher. Combined, they have won 18 races and more than $3.5 million.

“They’re all fillies we’ve had from Day 1, so it’s great to see them develop … all three Grade 1 winners. It’s fun to see that,” Pletcher said this week from Keeneland.

It will be more fun for Pletcher if one of them wins the Distaff, a race in which the early favorites are Sheer Drama and Wedding Toast.

Pletcher’s best chance is Got Lucky, whose first stakes win was only three months ago. Though she ran in top races and was Grade 2-placed at 2 and 3, her development stalled short of top class. Pletcher figured her 4-year-old season would be her best.

“Got Lucky is a classy A.P. Indy type that has just gotten better every year,” he said. “We felt like she would probably reach her peak this year, which is kind of typical for a lot of the A.P. Indys.”

Got Lucky ran the race of her career last weekend, defeating Untapable by a neck with a ground-saving, come-from-behind rally. Got Lucky enters the fall of her 4-year-old season, possibly her final season, in peak form.

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“She’s physically matured,” Pletcher said. “Even though we don’t weigh our horses, I would say she’s carrying 100 pounds more condition this year than she was last year.”

Got Lucky, owned and bred by Hill ‘n’ Dale, has won three of her last four starts. Her last three Beyer Speed Figures have been the best of her career.

Irad Ortiz Jr. rode Got Lucky in the Spinster and keeps the mount for the Distaff.

Curalina, a 3-year-old by Curlin, gives Pletcher a second shot. Curalina came around quickly at 2 but came down with sore shins after finishing second in her debut at Saratoga. That was it for her juvenile campaign. She returned this spring and went straight up the ladder.

She won a maiden race in March at Gulfstream Park, romped in an allowance in May at Churchill Downs, and upset the Grade 1 Acorn at Belmont in only the third start of her 3-year-old campaign.

Curalina, whose owner, Eclipse Thoroughbreds, is expected to race her next season, has lost three Grade 1 races since the Acorn. But she finished in the money each time, including a runner-up finish last out in the Grade 1 Beldame, her first race against older winners. Curalina missed by 2 3/4 lengths and finished five lengths clear of third.

“I thought it was a sneaky-good race,” Pletcher said. “Any time you let a filly the quality of Wedding Toast get loose on the lead through moderate fractions, also on a track that seemed to be carrying speed pretty well, it’s tough to run down one like that.”

Curalina will have her first breeze over the Keeneland track this weekend, depending upon the weather. What she does not have, as of midweek, is a confirmed jockey.

John Velazquez rode Curalina six times this year, winning four. Velazquez also rides Untapable, the 2014 Distaff winner and the runner-up in the Spinster last weekend.

Stopchargingmaria is Pletcher’s third contender. A two-time Grade 1 winner last year at 3, this year she started four times, winning a pair of Grade 3 races. Stopchargingmaria will enter the Distaff fresh following a two-month layoff.

In her most recent start Aug. 29, Stopchargingmaria finished fourth as the favorite in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign at Saratoga. The top three finishers were Sheer Drama, Got Lucky, and Untapable. It was the second start back for Stopchargingmaria. She regressed.

“The last couple years off big efforts, she generally runs back good, but not quite as good,” Pletcher said. “We’re confident we can have her ready to run her best race off a little bit of a layoff and decided to take our best shot at the Breeders’ Cup.”

Javier Castellano will ride Stopchargingmaria in the Distaff.

Pletcher started three in the Distaff twice previously – Octave finished third in 2007; his 2006 runners were unplaced.

This fall in the Distaff, three top fillies – Got Lucky, Curalina, and Stopchargingmaria – provide Pletcher with a forceful combination of quantity and quality.