Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf: Avenge, Goodyearforroses look to punch ticket

Four fillies and mares from the United States and abroad – Dacita, Ashiana, Hydrangea, and Birdie Gold – have earned expense-paid berths for the Nov. 4 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar with triumphs in designated Breeders’ Cup Challenge races. Another pair will join those qualifiers after this weekend following Saturday’s Grade 1 Rodeo Drive at Santa Anita and Sunday’s Group 1 Prix de l’Opera at Chantilly in France.

Those two races are among the four remaining Win and You’re In Challenge races for the division, with the final two being the Grade 1 First Lady on Oct. 7 at Keeneland and the Grade 1 Flower Bowl on Oct. 8 at Belmont.

The Rodeo Drive and Prix de l’Opera are both expected to attract large fields, though the anticipated field for the Rodeo Drive seems a cut below Grade 1 standard beyond the first couple favorites. In contrast, the Prix de l’Opera is expected to include many of Europe’s best females, with such prominent runners as Winter, Sobetsu, Senga, Rhododendron, Queen’s Trust, Usherette, Hydrangea, and Roly Poly among the favorites in the wagering.

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The Rodeo Drive is expected to be led by Goodyearforroses and Avenge. Goodyearforroses has been among the best fillies and mares on the West Coast this year, while Avenge was in 2016 when she won the Rodeo Drive and finished third in the Filly and Mare Turf.

This year hasn’t been as rewarding for Avenge, who has raced just two times, running third behind Lady Eli and Goodyearforroses in the Grade 1 Gamely on May 27 in her seasonal bow and then sixth in the Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon on Aug. 5 at Del Mar.

Avenge’s suspect recent form will likely result in Rodeo Drive favoritism for Goodyearforroses, a traffic-troubled second to Cambodia in the John Mabee Stakes after returning from a summer freshening Sept. 2 at Del Mar.

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Goodyearforroses’s performance in the Mabee left trainer Richard Baltas encouraged after she had a couple weeks of uninspired training at Del Mar leading up to the race. That inspired him to work her there with blinkers and then add them for the Mabee.

He has been much happier with her breezes in recent weeks at Santa Anita, capped by a half-mile maintenance move Monday in 49.60 seconds that he called “dynamite.”

The Rodeo Drive, at 1 1/4 miles, comes at a distance Baltas feels suits her better than 1 1/8 miles, the distance over which the Filly and Mare Turf will be run this year – the shortest in the race’s history. She has done little wrong this year at 1 1/8 miles, however, winning the Grade 2 Santa Ana at the trip and also finishing second to Lady Eli at the distance in the Gamely, a race in which she was beaten only a half-length.

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Baltas said she doesn’t have to win the Rodeo Drive to race in the Filly and Mare Turf, but that she would need to perform well, probably running no worse than second.

Bypassing the Rodeo Drive is Cambodia, though she could still run in the Filly and Mare Turf or the Goldikova on the Nov. 4 Breeders’ Cup undercard. She worked for the first time since winning the Mabee when she breezed a half-mile in 48.80 on Tuesday at Santa Anita.

– additional reporting by Steve Andersen