Breeders’ Cup Distaff: Rare full field in the making

The Breeders’ Cup Distaff historically attracts moderate numbers. The 9.1 average field size is the smallest of the BC races. That will change this fall at Keeneland, where a 14-runner maximum is taking shape pending the final Distaff prep race this weekend.

The Grade 1 Spinster Stakes on Sunday at Keeneland is expected to include four Distaff candidates – Untapable, the 2014 Distaff winner; Lovely Maria, the 2015 Kentucky Oaks winner; Frivolous, a Grade 2 winner; and Got Lucky, a Grade 3 winner.

Those four try to join 12 others whose preps are done and remain under consideration – Wedding Toast, Sheer Drama, I’m a Chatterbox, Curalina, Stopchargingmaria, My Sweet Addiction, Warren’s Veneda, Include Betty, Stellar Wind, Calamity Kate, Peace and War, and Salama.

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The Distaff field gained focus in three stakes last weekend, including a dominant win by a mare who could vie for favoritism.

Wedding Toast returned from a layoff of nearly four months last Saturday with a convincing victory in the one-turn, 1 1/8-mile Beldame at Belmont Park. Wedding Toast won by almost three lengths, earned a 103 Beyer Speed Figure, and is the top-figure Distaff candidate.

The win was Wedding Toast’s eighth from 12 starts and marked her second triple-digit Beyer. The handicapping conversation going into the Distaff will concern her ability around two turns. Trained by Kiaran McLaughlin, Wedding Toast returned to Greentree Training Center in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., after the Beldame.

Sheer Drama, the current Distaff favorite by Daily Racing Form after Grade 1 wins at Delaware and Saratoga, is based at Gulfstream Park and will ship to Keeneland after her final workout.

In addition to principals Sheer Drama and Wedding Toast, the Distaff field has grown.

Curalina finished second in the Beldame after stumbling at the start. Todd Pletcher trains Curalina, the Grade 1 Acorn winner and Grade 1-placed three times since. Pletcher also trains Stopchargingmaria, who will train into the Distaff, and Got Lucky, scheduled to run Sunday in the Spinster.

The Zenyatta Stakes last Saturday at Santa Anita produced a BC Classic contender in Beholder and a Distaff longshot in My Sweet Addiction. The runner-up in the Zenyatta, My Sweet Addiction is “under consideration” for the Distaff, trainer Marty Jones said.

Meanwhile, Grade 1 winner Warren’s Veneda remains a Distaff candidate despite finishing seventh in the Zenyatta. She “ran down badly,” according to trainer Craig Lewis.

The ungraded Remington Oaks last Sunday was won by Include Betty, a Grade 1 winner in June in New York. Include Betty’s status for the Distaff is unconfirmed; she would be among the higher-odds runners.

Stellar Wind, the top 3-year-old dirt filly in California, will train into the BC Distaff. I’m a Chatterbox, Calamity Kate, and Peace and War, the top three finishers in the Grade 1 Cotillion at Parx, are likely for the Distaff. Salama, a Grade 3 winner in Peru, is training at Keeneland.