Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint: How will complex race with baker's dozen unfold?

ARCADIA, Calif. – The $1 million Filly and Mare Sprint usually is held earlier on Breeders’ Cup Saturday, but with such a competitive renewal on tap this year, the seven-furlong race has been spotted late in the program as a key link in all the huge multiple-race wagers.

It’s the 10th of 12 Saturday races at Santa Anita – and one of the more vexing handicapping puzzles of the entire 2016 Breeders’ Cup. For one, there’s no obvious pacesetter among the field of 13, and the running styles are such that it’s not hard to envision a bunch of trainers telling their jockeys in the paddock: “Okay, so sit third or fourth to the top of the lane, then make your move.”

Of course, somebody has to lead, and somebody has to trail, and therein lies some of the difficulty in assessing this 10th running of the BC Filly and Mare Sprint. Gloryzapper and Paulassilverlining are the most likely candidates to escort the field into the turn, while fillies such as Carina Mia – who could rule a slight favorite for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott – and longshots Paola Queen and Wonder Gal also have useful early speed.

Carina Mia, most recently a distant second to Songbird in the two-turn Cotillion, was an even-money favorite when six of these same fillies clashed in the Grade 1 Ballerina on the Aug. 27 Travers undercard at Saratoga. Haveyougoneaway won the seven-furlong Ballerina by a half-length over By the Moon, with Carina Mia another length back in third after forcing the pace.

Julien Leparoux, the regular rider for Carina Mia, missed the Ballerina with a wrist injury, marking the only time he hasn’t been aboard the 3-year-old filly in her nine career starts. Leparoux said the goal Saturday is to get the filly to relax off the pace.

“She doesn’t have to be ‘back-back,’ ” said Leparoux. “Going seven furlongs should be easier than when we went against Songbird. We should be a little bit off it, and hopefully she will run her race from there.”

Haveyougoneaway won the Ballerina at 10-1 with a perfect outside stalking trip under John Velazquez, who gets a return call Saturday from trainer Tom Morley, a native of England. Haveyougoneaway has won three of her four starts since being privately purchased in the spring by Gary Barber and Sequel Racing and turned over to Morley, who had not won so much as an ungraded stakes until the 5-year-old New York-bred mare walked into his barn at Belmont Park.

Before being flown here Sunday, Haveyougoneaway was sent through four recorded works at Belmont Park following the Ballerina, with Morley saying he thought the mare “looked electric as she went through the wire” in her final breeze Oct. 27.

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By the Moon is one of two fillies in the Filly and Mare Sprint trained by Michelle Nevin, with Paulassilverlining the other. By the Moon was flown here from New York a month out from the Breeders’ Cup in the care of Nevin’s assistant, Tomesh Singh.

“Tomesh would call every day with good reports,” said Nevin. “After I got out here Sunday, I saw for myself how good the filly has been doing. She’s absolutely ready.”

Other New York fillies include the Chad Brown pair of Wavell Avenue, who upset the 2015 Filly and Mare Sprint at 10-1 at Keeneland, and Irish Jasper, a last-out winner of the Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes.

Wavell Avenue, just 1 for 6 this year, will be looking to match Groupie Doll (2012-13) as the only two-time winner of the Filly and Mare Sprint.

“I thought her last race was good on a muddy track with a difficult inside trip,” said Brown, referring to a third-place finish Oct. 1 in the Gallant Bloom at Belmont. “Out of that race, she really, really sharpened up in her works.”

The California contingent is led by Tara’s Tango, a multiple graded winner in two-turn stakes this year over the Santa Anita main track. The gray 4-year-old has a turn of foot that Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer thinks will serve her well at this shorter distance.

“I do believe she’s better around one turn,” said Hollendorfer.

Gloryzapper won the local prep, the Oct. 9 L.A. Woman, in stamping her BC ticket. “I really feel like if she’s ever going to give me her top effort, it’s going to be Breeders’ Cup Day,” said trainer Phil D’Amato.

Another locally based filly turning back in distance, Finest City, comes well drawn in post 12 with Mike Smith riding her for the first time. “I think she’s going to run the race of her life,” said Ian Kruljac, her 28-year-old trainer.

Other longshots rounding out the lineup are Gomo, fourth in her only two starts this year, and Spelling Again, a Kentucky-based filly here by virtue of a Win and You’re In score at Gulfstream Park in July.

One expected entrant, Enchanting Lady, was withdrawn by trainer Bob Baffert because of a bruised foot.

The Filly and Mare Sprint was first run in 2007 at Monmouth Park as a six-furlong race. Post time is 4:01 p.m. Pacific.