Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint: Haulin Ice supplemented as Joseph eyes repeat
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In a bid to win the race for a second consecutive year, trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. considered a trio of 4-year-old fillies for this year’s Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint before landing on a single runner. Getting the Florida-based filly Haulin Ice into the race should have been straightforward for the trainer, but he and the owners only decided to take the trip after a month of intense organizing.
Joseph’s filly is one of 12 horses pre-entered in this year’s Filly and Mare Sprint, which will predominantly feature West Coast runners. Under similar circumstances last year, Joseph pulled off a 19-1 upset when Soul of an Angel closed from dead last to win the Filly and Mare Sprint at Del Mar, six weeks after the 5-year-old mare pulled off a remarkably similar trip to win the Grade 3 Princess Rooney at Gulfstream Park.
The prep race in Florida, which grants automatic entry into the Filly and Mare Sprint, had already proven immensely useful to Joseph the year before. In 2023, Three Witches won the Princess Rooney before finishing third at 34-1 odds in the Filly and Mare Sprint at Churchill Downs.
This year, Joseph won the Princess Rooney for a third straight time when Haulin Ice went straight to the lead and drew away by 4 3/4 lengths. With an automatic starting position, paid entry fees, and $10,000 for travel from Florida, it seemed natural that Joseph would send another Princess Rooney winner up the ladder.
The problem was that she was not nominated for the Breeders’ Cup, and getting her into the race required a $100,000 fee. If she had not been sired by Coal Front, a Breeders’ Cup-nominated stallion, the fee would have been $200,000.
As of last week, Joseph said that she had a “50-50” chance to run in the race, along with her stablemate R Disaster, who was ultimately not pre-entered. Mystic Lake, a five-time stakes winner this year, was taken out of consideration earlier in the month. In the end, C2 Racing Stable, WSS Racing, and Agave Racing Stable decided to make the payment to give Haulin Ice the chance.
While Joseph is left with one runner in the pre-entered field, West Coast trainers Bob Baffert and Richard Mandella are making better use of their numbers. Baffert pre-entered Grade 1 Ballerina winner Hope Road, two-time graded stakes winner Richi, and the improving filly Splendora.
Mandella pre-entered Kopion, who earned a 107 Beyer Speed Figure around two turns in the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch, and Tamara, who returned from a layoff of nearly 11 months to win the Grade 3 Chillingworth on Oct. 4. He originally said that he intended to pre-enter Kopion in the Sprint as well, but he instead pre-entered both fillies in that race as a second preference.
Most of those potentially joining Haulin Ice from the East Coast are coming out of the Grade 2 Thoroughbred Club of America at Keeneland. Praying, a 3-year-old filly trained by Robert Medina, may be rematched with Vahva and Zeitlos, older rivals she defeated in a 9-1 upset last time out.
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