Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf: Kitten's Dumplings set to take on elders

Fresh off Kitten’s Dumplings’s victory in Saturday’s Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Keeneland, Ken Ramsey – who owns her with his wife, Sarah – has an even more prestigious race in mind for the filly: the Grade 1, $2 Million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 2.

“Absolutely,” he said, when asked if she was running.

Kitten’s Dumplings, a daughter of Ramsey-owned sire Kitten’s Joy, will be racing outside her own age group for the first time in the Breeders’ Cup, having raced exclusively against 3-year-old fillies this year. In addition to her QE II triumph, she took the Edgewood, Regret, and Lake George stakes earlier in 2012.

If she reproduces her QE II performance, she has a fighting chance in the Breeders’ Cup. She earned a career-best 95 Beyer Speed Figure in the QE II in winning by a neck over favored Alterite, winner of the Grade 1 Garden City.

[BREEDERS’ CUP 2013: See DRF’s top contenders]

There will be no rematch between the two at Santa Anita, with trainer Chad Brown saying Monday that he would not run Alterite in the Breeder’s Cup. She is not a Breeders’ Cup nominee.

Beyond Kitten’s Dumplings racing her way into the Breeders’ Cup, there were few other developments pertaining to the race over the weekend

Flower Bowl winner Laughing, announced as a likely starter last week, worked Sunday and remains on target for the race, trainer Alan Goldberg said Monday. Among the leading contenders, she is the only one that is in need of a supplement to start, at a horses-of-racing-age cost of $100,000.

Beyond the appeal of the $2 million purse of the Filly and Mare Turf, Ramsey has other motives for Kitten’s Dumplings’s participation in the Breeders’ Cup.

Her performance – as well as those from other Kitten’s Joy runners being targeted for Breeders’ Cup races – could impact the commercial appeal of Kitten’s Joy and his 2014 stud fee.

Besides Kitten’s Dumplings, Ramsey has five other runners by Kitten’s Joy set to start in the Breeders’ Cup: Big Blue Kitten and Real Solution in the Turf; Kitten Kaboodle and Granny Mc’s Kitten in the Juvenile Fillies Turf; and Bobby’s Kitten in the Juvenile Turf.

Another Ramsey participant, We Miss Artie, is by Artie Schiller and will go in the Juvenile, unless Bobby’s Kitten is withdrawn from the Juvenile Turf for some reason, Ramsey said. In which case, We Miss Artie would be redirected to Juvenile Turf.