Breeders' Cup: Joseph works several of his contenders
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Saffie Joseph Jr., who upset the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint with Soul of an Angel two years ago at Del Mar, will have two chances of repeating that accomplishment a week from Saturday at Keeneland after pre-entering Kerry’s Kiss and R Disaster for the race on Monday. Kerry's Kiss gives her trainer additional confidence in her chances after working what he described as a “much better than the final time suggests” half-mile earlier that morning at Gulfstream Park.
Joseph, who also breezed Forged Steel on Monday at Saratoga for his upcoming start in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, was in South Florida, where track clocker’s caught Kerry’s Kiss in 49.20 seconds followed by gallop-out times of 1:02.20 for five furlongs and 1:14.60 for six panels in company with stablemate AI Loud.
“I know 49 doesn’t sound that great, but she did it in hand and galloped out very strong. I thought it was a terrific work,” said Joseph. “I know the Filly and Mare Sprint is an ambitious spot and she’s going to need to improve, but after watching this work it makes me think she can win this race if everything went right.”
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Kerry’s Kiss has captured all three of her starts, each in wire-to-wire fashion, since being purchased privately and transferred to Joseph shortly after winning a two-turn allowance race on April 18 at Oaklawn Park. Her most recent victory came in Gulfstream Park’s Grade 3 Princess Rooney, a Win and You’re In race for the Filly and Mare Sprint. She’ll be joined in the starting gate on Breeders’ Cup Day by her more accomplished mate, the Grade 1 winner R Disaster, with whom she shares a similar front-running style.
“I don’t think either filly necessarily needs the lead to win, and their strategy in the Breeders’ Cup will likely be dictated by their posts and how they break,” said Joseph.
R Disaster is stabled at Saratoga along with Forged Steel and Joseph’s two other Breeders’ Cup contenders, Eunomia (Distaff) and In Our Time (Turf Sprint), and is scheduled to have her final Breeders’ Cup prep over the Oklahoma track on Thursday.
Kerry’s Kiss was one of two top Filly and Mare Sprint contenders to work on Monday, along with trainer Bob Baffert’s Explora, who completed five furlongs in 1:00 at Churchill Downs. Explora was a runaway winner of the Grade 1 Test earlier this summer at Saratoga but was upset at odds of 1-5 when beaten a head by Conceit in the Grade 3 Dogwood last month at Churchill.
Ways and Means, who will be the heavy favorite in the Filly and Mare Sprint, is also currently stabled at Saratoga, where she most recently breezed four furlongs in 48.20 seconds over the Oklahoma track on Thursday.
Forged Steel was timed four furlongs in 47.80 by track clockers at Saratoga on Monday with a long and strong gallop-out of his own, five-eighths in 1:00.80, up three-quarters in 1:14.83. Joseph said he was quite pleased with what he saw after reviewing a video of the work sent by his assistant later that morning.
“The work looked very good, the same way he had been training going into his last race,” said Joseph. “I see no regression since he returned from California.”
Forged Steel will enter the Classic off his first Grade 1 victory, which came in the 1 1/8-mile Goodwood at Santa Anita on Sept. 26. Joseph said Forged Steel is currently scheduled to have one more work at Saratoga before vanning to Keeneland on Monday.
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