Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf: Looks like Brown vs. Europe again

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – For the past six years the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf has largely boiled down to a matchup of Chad Brown-trained females from America vs. raiders from Europe. Three times Brown trainees have come on top, three times it was those from Europe.

Conditions are ripe for another Brown vs. Europe fight Saturday in the Grade 1, $2 million Filly and Mare Turf at Churchill Downs. Brown has five of the 14 entrants – A Raving Beauty, Fourstar Crook, Santa Monica, Sistercharlie, and Thais – while Europe also has a quintet, headed by Prix de l’Opera winner Wild Illusion.

The distance and course condition could favor the Europeans. This year’s race is at 1 3/8 miles, the longest it has been since Churchill Downs last hosted the Breeders’ Cup in 2011, and European horses are more accustomed to racing lengthy distances. Additionally, midweek rain in Louisville could leave a tiring, damp course on Saturday. Europeans are also more experienced with such going.

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Sistercharlie, the 3-1 morning-line favorite, could prove disadvantaged by wet ground. A three-time Grade 1 winner in America this year for Brown, she has raced exclusively on firm turf since arriving here in 2017. In her lone attempt on wet turf, she ran fourth over heavy footing in March of last year when racing in France.

Although she has raced from 1 1/16 miles to 1 1/4 miles this year, Brown has no concerns about her lasting the distance.

“Sistercharlie is a real staying horse that comes from behind, and should have no problem stretching out,” he said.

Fourstar Crook, a 6-year-old New York-bred daughter of Freud, possesses the wet-turf experience Sistercharlie lacks. She won the Flower Bowl at Belmont on Oct. 7 over “good” turf, and scored victories earlier in her career over yielding ground. Her two losses from five starts this year were delivered by stablemate Sistercharlie, who edged her by a half-length in the Beverly D. on Aug. 11 and by 2 1/4 lengths in the Jenny Wiley on March 10.

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She turned the tables on Sistercharlie in winning the Grade 2 New York Handicap at Belmont on June 8.

Two of Brown’s record-equaling three winners of this race – Zagora (2012) and Stephanie’s Kitten (2015) – likewise prepped in the Flower Bowl, with Zagora running second and Stephanie’s Kitten winning. Brown’s other Filly and Mare Turf winner, Dayatthespa (2014), was set up for her Breeders’ Cup success by taking the one-mile First Lady at Keeneland, a race Brown won this year with A Raving Beauty.

In winning the First Lady on Oct. 6, A Raving Beauty earned an expense-paid Breeders’ Cup Challenge berth in the Filly and Mare Turf, prompting her owners and Brown to test her beyond the shorter distances over which she has customarily competed.

“We didn’t have much to lose to at least try it,” he said. “It’s going to be a long distance for her to get, but, you know, if the pace is right, and she gets away easy … her class might take her that far.”

John Velazquez, aboard for A Raving Beauty’s victory in the First Lady, remains as the regular rider on Sistercharlie, freeing the mount on A Raving Beauty to go to Javier Castellano.

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Wild Illusion, racing for the same European connections that won this race last year with Wuheida, is tested in long races and over soft ground, though the three-turn setup for 1 3/8 miles at Churchill Downs will represent a new dynamic for her – as it will for many in the field.

“She’s encountered Goodwood, a very undulating track with a fairly sharp turn,” trainer Charlie Appleby said. “She’s trained in Dubai, wintered in Dubai, and gotten used to training on two turns there. Stepping back up to the mile and three (eighths) around those bends wouldn’t worry me at all.”

The first of those turns comes up in merely 485 feet, according to the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Horsemen’s Guide, placing outside-drawn horses at risk of losing ground. Though Wild Illusion is unaffected in post 3, other Europeans could be hurt by the configuration. Athena and Eziyra drew posts 13 and 14, respectively.

Daily Racing Form post-position statistics, which date to 1991, indicate posts 11-14 are a combined 0 for 17 over this infrequently run distance at Churchill.

Besides the Chad Brown representatives and those from Europe, the Filly and Mare Turf attracted four others. They are Paved, the Rodeo Drive runner-up; Smart Choice, a Challenge race winner from Peru who is now in training with Todd Pletcher; Mom’s On Strike, a longshot adding blinkers; and Fuhriously Kissed, likely the largest price in the field after going unplaced in three starts on turf over her 22-race career.

The Filly and Mare Turf goes as the sixth race on Saturday with post time of 2:04 Eastern.