Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint: All eyes on Ways and Means
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Ways and Means is likely to face a dozen rivals and will be heavily favored to give her trainer Chad Brown a record fourth victory in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on Oct. 31 at Keeneland.
Ways and Means earned an automatic berth into the race by virtue of her one-sided triumph in the Ballerina Stakes, a Win and You’re In race at Saratoga, in her most recent start. She tops a list of 14 horses pre-entered for the seven-furlong Filly and Mare Sprint. The connections of each entrant in the race gave first preference to the Filly and Mare Sprint, with the exception of Splendora, who trainer Bob Baffert is pointing instead to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
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Baffert is, however, expected to start two others, Explora and Nooni, in the Filly and Mare Sprint. He will be one of three trainers likely to have multiple entries in the event, along with Saffie Joseph Jr. and Michael McCarthy.
Joseph will send out speedsters R Disaster and Kerry’s Kiss while seeking to win this race for the second time in three years, having upset the 2024 edition of the Filly and Mare Sprint with the late-running 19-1 outsider Soul of an Angel.
McCarthy also will be in quest of his second Filly and Mare Sprint victory, having won the race at Del Mar in 2021 with Ce Ce. He will be represented in this year’s renewal by the pair of Look Forward and Simply Joking.
The remainder of the starting lineup, barring any late defections prior to the post position draw on Monday, will include Evanescence, Foie Gras, Kilwin, Majestic Oops, Praying, and Sweet Azteca.
Like Ways and Means, both Evanescence and Kerry’s Kiss won Breeders’ Cup qualifying races for the Filly and Mare Sprint. Evanescence registered a hard-fought neck victory over Praying in the Grade 2 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes earlier this month at Keeneland. Kerry’s Kiss scored a 1 1/2-length, wire-to-wire triumph at the direct expense of the favored Simply Joking in the Grade 3 Princess Rooney on Sept. 12 at Gulfstream Park.
Wavell Avenue, in 2015, and Goodnight Olive, who went back to back in 2022 and 2023, gave Brown his three previous Filly and Mare Sprint wins. Wavell Avenue and Goodnight Olive posted their victories here at Keeneland in 2015 and 2022, respectively.
Ways and Means has not started since her impressive and popular 5 1/2-length victory over Kilwin in the seven-furlong Ballerina on Aug. 29.
The win was the second in just three starts this season for Ways and Means, who finished fifth as the tepid 2-1 favorite behind Soul of an Angel in the 2024 Filly and Mare Sprint. Her only setback this year came on the Kentucky Derby undercard six months earlier when she was second best behind R Disaster in the Grade 1 Derby City Distaff at Churchill Downs.
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