Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint: History is against Cavorting
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kiaran McLaughlin wasn’t trying to be funny after finding out that a 3-year-old has never won the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint despite 24 attempts, including four losing favorites.
“Well, this is a case where 1 for 25 is going to look pretty good,” he said.
McLaughlin will send out Cavorting, whose sensational victories in the Grade 1 Test and Grade 2 Prioress at Saratoga are likely to make her the favorite in the $1 million Filly and Mare Sprint, the fifth of 12 Saturday races at Keeneland. The 3-year-old Bernardini filly is owned by the Stonestreet Stables of Curlin and Rachel Alexandra fame.
“What’s happened in previous years doesn’t really affect our chances, I wouldn’t think,” said McLaughlin. “All I know is our filly is coming into this in great shape. She’s as good as I can get her, our post is just fine, and the seven-eighths is her best distance.”
Cavorting will break from the far-outside post in a full gate of 14 in the seven-furlong Filly and Mare Sprint, a race with the kind of blazing speed anyone would expect for a Breeders’ Cup event. Stonetastic, Taris, and La Verdad all are likely to be part of the early chase, although several others are stretching out from six-furlong races and could be part of the mix, too.
Stonetastic, fourth as the pacesetter in the Filly and Mare Sprint last year at Santa Anita, comes in with a series of sizzling workouts for New Jersey-based trainer Kelly Breen. The gray 4-year-old will break from post 8 with Paco Lopez up.
“We’re just going to let Paco decide how to play it,” said Breen. “There’s plenty of speed on both sides of us. Probably the key for anybody is getting into a nice and relaxed rhythm, even if you’re caught up on the pace. Hopefully, that’ll be us.”
And then there’s the 6-year-old Judy the Beauty (post 11, Frankie Dettori), whose record for owner and trainer Wesley Ward in the Filly and Mare Sprint is outstanding: She was second in 2013, then won in 2014.
“Everything I’ve done with her for the last 12 months has been to get back to this race,” said Ward. “I know she hasn’t won this year, but she’s only run three times, and I honestly don’t think she’s lost anything. We won’t know until Saturday, but I’m expecting her to run huge.”
Taris (post 3, Gary Stevens) might well be the wild card of the group. Now 4, the filly ran the proverbial hole in the wind here last fall in earning a 110 Beyer Speed Figure in the Raven Run, after which she was bought privately by the Coolmore group and sent to California and trainer Simon Callaghan, for whom she has been alternately brilliant and disappointing in limited appearances.
La Verdad (post 4, Jose Ortiz) had to be supplemented for $100,000 to be made eligible to the Breeders’ Cup after easily defeating fellow New York-breds just last weekend at Belmont Park. Although as of midweek trainer Linda Rice had not fully committed La Verdad to this race because of the quick turnaround, Rice said she intends to “give her the opportunity” if conditions are optimal.
Super Majesty (post 6, Alex Solis) is the only other 3-year-old besides Cavorting in this field. Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer initially was inclined to bypass the Breeders’ Cup after Super Majesty won the Dogwood Stakes six weeks ago at Churchill Downs but said the progress she has shown in the interim was encouraging enough to give this a shot.
Trainer Todd Pletcher is represented by the uncoupled duo of Dame Dorothy (post 2, John Velazquez) and Sweet Whiskey (post 9, Javier Castellano), both of whom have shown occasional flashes to suggest they are capable here.
The Cinderella story in the field is Fioretti (post 1, Sophie Doyle). Her trainer, Anthony Hamilton, is based about 10 miles from Keeneland at the Thoroughbred Center training facility and won a graded stakes for the first time when Fioretti upset the Grade 2 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes here four weeks ago at 17-1.
Another starter with a compelling background is Artemis Agrotera (post 5, Junior Alvarado), who will be making her first start since finishing seventh in the Filly and Mare Sprint a year ago at Santa Anita at just 9-2. Trainer Mike Hushion, on the mend from serious illness, said the filly’s recent training moves in New York were sufficient to convince him to run.
The Filly and Mare Sprint was first run in 2007, when the Breeders’ Cup expanded to two days. Three-year-olds lost as favorites in four of the first five years. However, favorites have won each of the last three runnings, all as older horses: Groupie Doll (2012-13) and Judy the Beauty (2014).
Post time for the Filly and Mare Sprint is 1:25 p.m. Eastern.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 7 Wavell Avenue. Trainer Chad Brown is 39-1-3-5 with a $0.13 ROI over the past five years in Grade 1 stakes on dirt (winless with his last 36 starters). – Mike Hogan