Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies: Chocolate Gelato looks like lukewarm favorite
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Everything went pretty much as expected when pre-entries were taken for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, with the winners of all the major divisional preps among those set to clash in a showdown that surely will produce a champion.
An oversubscribed lineup of 19 2-year-old fillies is led by the Frizette winner Chocolate Gelato, along with Wonder Wheel (Alcibiades), And Tell Me Nolies (Chandelier), and Leave No Trace (Spinaway) – not to mention an assortment of other well-regarded contenders in a wide-open renewal of the 1 1/16-mile Juvenile Fillies.
Xigera, one of the 14 fillies in the main body, is expected to run instead in the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf, her first preference, a move that would allow the first of five alternates, Sabra Tuff, into the race when entries are drawn Monday. That would leave Alma Rosa next up, followed by Hoosier Philly. Born Dapper and Showgirl Lynne B both are far down the alternates list for the Juvenile Fillies and Juvenile Fillies Turf, and seem to have very little chance of making either race.
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Chocolate Gelato, a lukewarm favorite on the early Daily Racing Form line for the Juvenile Fillies, was among the Todd Pletcher horses who shipped to Keeneland from New York a few weeks early. The daughter of Practical Joke already has posted one workout over the local surface and is scheduled to have a final pre-race breeze Friday. She’ll have Irad Ortiz Jr. back aboard in the Juvenile Fillies when she makes her first start around two turns.
Remarkably, Pletcher has won each of the other four existing Breeders’ Cup events for 2-year-olds at least once (including the Juvenile twice), but none of his 12 overall BC wins have come in the Juvenile Fillies.
The respective 2-3-4 finishers behind Chocolate Gelato –You’re My Girl, Leave No Trace, and American Rockette – also will breeze in the coming days. You’re My Girl arrived here Oct. 18 for trainer John Terranova. Leave No Trace will work Thursday in New York for Phil Serpe before shipping down. American Rockette, trained by Bill Mott, has trained at Saratoga since the spring.
Four of the top five from the Oct. 7 Alcibiades at Keeneland return in here, assuming Xigera opts out. Wonder Wheel won the Alcibiades by a nose over Chop Chop, with Raging Sea closing well to finish just a neck back in third before being disqualified to fourth for interference. All figure in single-digit odds for this race, while Sabra Tuff figures as a big longshot again after finishing fifth at 74-1 in the Alcibiades.
And Tell Me Nolies, trained by Peter Miller, and Vegas Magic, who arrived here in late September for Doug O’Neill, are the only two California representatives. Justique was an early defection, while trainer Michael McCarthy only decided recently to withhold Uncontrollable, the Chandelier runner-up.
Hoosier Philly, an easy winner of her only start, will be entered in an allowance or the Rags to Riches on the opening-day card Sunday at Churchill Downs. She’ll be scratched if it appears she will make the Juvenile Fillies lineup, trainer Tom Amoss said.
Races at 1 1/16 miles on the main track at Keeneland are short-stretch races that begin and end at what otherwise is the sixteenth pole.
This will be the 39th running of the Juvenile Fillies, one of the original seven races held during the first Breeders’ Cup, run at Hollywood Park in 1984.
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