Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint: Goodnight Olive will be fresh for repeat bid
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Echo Zulu is the undisputed leader of the filly and mare sprint division, but trainer Steve Asmussen has mentioned the six-furlong Sprint as a very likely Breeders’ Cup race for that brilliant 4-year-old.
If Echo Zulu opts to face males, that wouldn’t bother trainer Chad Brown one bit. His defending Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint winner, Goodnight Olive, earned a career-best 108 Beyer Speed Figure in vain when second to Echo Zulu in Saratoga’s Ballerina Handicap on Aug. 26.
Never off the board from 11 starts, Goodnight Olive used a victory in the Ballerina as a springboard to last year’s Breeders’ Cup success.
“We’re going to stick with the plan of just training her up to the race,” Brown said late last week. “She’s stabled at Belmont now and doing just fine.”
Godolphin will likely be represented by both Caramel Swirl and Matareya. Caramel Swirl finished third in last week’s Grade 2 Gallant Bloom in New York, but was placed first after being pinched badly from in between rivals in upper stretch.
Caramel Swirl was fourth in the Ballerina, and third, one length behind winning Goodnight Olive, in Belmont’s Grade 2 Bed o’ Roses on June 17.
Matareya, third in the Ballerina in her most recent start, grabbed the Grade 1 Derby City Distaff on May 6 at Churchill Downs.
“She’s doing great,” trainer Brad Cox said. “I’m going to prep her here at Churchill Downs with a good string of works, lead her out to California, and see what happens.”
Kirstenbosch earned her way into the field with a late-running rally in the Grade 3 Chillingworth last week at Santa Anita. With that victory, she snapped Eda’s eight-race winning streak dating back to 2021.
More Filly and Mare Sprint contenders will emerge after this weekend’s two “Win and You’re In” events.
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Gulfstream carded the Grade 3, $225,000 Princess Rooney Invitational at seven furlongs on Saturday. That field is led by Grade 2 winner Maryquitecontrary, who finished seventh in the Ballerina but second behind Goodnight Olive in Keeneland’s Grade 1 Madison on April 8.
Asmussen’s Wicked Halo, third in last year’s Filly and Mare Sprint, makes her final prep Saturday in Keeneland’s Grade 2, $350,000 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes at six furlongs. She’ll face Yuugiri, who defeated Wicked Halo by 8 3/4 lengths in Churchill’s Open Mind on Sept. 16.
Other potential contenders to possibly emerge from this weekend’s stakes action are R Adios Jersey and Last Leaf.
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