Breeders' Cup Distaff: Swiss Skydiver sticks with winning routine
Swiss Skydiver’s weekend routine is straightforward. Saturday is workout day. Once a month, Saturday is race day.
“It’s a pretty simple program; it’s not complicated,” trainer Ken McPeek said this week from Churchill Downs, where Swiss Skydiver will work an easy half-mile Saturday, her first work since winning the Preakness Stakes. McPeek is looking for a time of about 50 seconds.
“It’s keeping her happy and letting her do what she feels like doing,” McPeek said.
Swiss Skydiver will work quicker the following Saturday, faster and farther the Saturday after that. Finally, on Saturday, Nov. 7, she will run in a Breeders’ Cup race at Keeneland. It’s clockwork.
Yet one issue remains unresolved for Swiss Skydiver, who has won 6 of 11 and campaigned for an entire year without a layoff. Will she face Monomoy Girl in the Distaff, or take on Improbable and company in the Classic?
McPeek and owner Peter Callahan hoped to wait until the last minute. An ideal scenario, McPeek said, would be “enter both races, get my post position, handicap them both, and then decide.”
That will not happen. Swiss Skydiver will be pre-entered in the Distaff and Classic at the Oct. 26 pre-entry deadline. However, by rule of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, horses can enter only one race run on the same day. Entries for the Nov. 7 Breeders’ Cup will be taken Nov. 2.
McPeek, whose 31 Breeders’ Cup starts include six seconds and 10 thirds, is still looking for his first Breeders’ Cup victory. Pride in his Breeders’ Cup results is accompanied by frustration.
“It doesn’t define you,” McPeek said. “There’s a lot of very good trainers that never won Breeders’ Cup races or a classic. Hitting the board in those races is a good run. But yeah, I’d like to have a few trophies.”
Swiss Skydiver already might have locked up the Eclipse Award trophy for outstanding 3-year-old filly after Grade 1 wins in the Preakness and Alabama Stakes, Grade 2 wins in the Santa Anita Oaks and Gulfstream Park Oaks, and a win in the Grade 3 Fantasy.
Since her debut a year ago, the durable Swiss Skydiver has campaigned without interruption. An early setback was partly responsible.
“She got a break as a young 2-year-old from a little chip she had in her ankle,” McPeek said. “That gave her time to grow up a little bit more.
“Some horses love running, and she’s got stamina that’s very rare. It’s been pretty amazing. I’m more a proponent of running rather than training, training, training.”
Monomoy Girl, 5-2 favorite on the Daily Racing Form preliminary line for the Distaff, also is on a Saturday work pattern. She is trained by Brad Cox, who said a decision is pending regarding the fall campaign of Grade 2 winner Bonny South.
Fighting Mad’s defection was the key Distaff development the past week, while Hard Not to Love, a Grade 1 sprint winner and runner-up in three graded routes, is not ruled out of the Distaff. Trainer John Shirreffs said deciding factors include “how she trains and what the weather is going to be like.”
The likely Distaff field, in order of early DRF odds: Monomoy Girl, Swiss Skydiver, Ollie’s Candy, Harvest Moon, Horologist, Valiance, Point of Honor, Dunbar Road, and Vexatious. Possibles include Ce Ce, Hard Not to Love, Speech, and Bonny South.