Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies: Crazy Hot Mess looks to get it together for new trainer

While most contenders in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies have done the traditional work to prepare for the $2 million race, Crazy Hot Mess is taking a somewhat unconventional path. After finishing second in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante for Peter Miller last month, she made an early move from California to Kentucky to begin working with new trainer Ray Bryner, who also co-owns the 2-year-old.

“She’s training very well,” Bryner said. “She’s breezed once a week, right along since she got back here.”

In addition to targeting the Juvenile Fillies, Bryner said he also plans to enter Crazy Hot Mess in the Keeneland Championship Sale on Oct. 28, offering a 33 percent stake in the filly ahead of the Breeders’ Cup.

Crazy Hot Mess’s three-race career with Miller began with a maiden victory at Ellis Park, when she became the first winner sired by Pinehurst.

She moved to Del Mar later in the summer, finishing a distant third in the Grade 3 Sorrento before improving to run 6 1/4 lengths behind the Bob Baffert-trained filly Miss Monica in the Del Mar Debutante. Both fillies skipped the Grade 2 Oak Leaf at Santa Anita earlier this month in favor of an early move to Churchill Downs.

Since moving into Bryner’s barn, Crazy Hot Mess has worked four times at Churchill, most recently breezing through five furlongs in 1:01.60. Her new trainer said the plan is for jockey Joel Rosario to keep his mount in the vanguard for the Breeders’ Cup, where she will attempt two turns for the first time.

“She’s doing very well,” Bryner said. “She’s a filly who’s matured a lot, scoping out and getting to be a big, long two-turn-looking filly.”

Bryner, who worked as an assistant for Miller and Kenny McPeek, has had 12 starters of his own this year, winning three races at Colonial Downs, Kentucky Downs, and Parx Racing. He has two more horses entered at Keeneland this week. He has trained horses under his own name at several points since 1982, winning 113 of 1,015 starts.

Since 2000, only five horses have run in the Juvenile Fillies off a trainer switch. None have finished better than sixth, when Union Strike ran first time for trainer Craig Dollase.

Crazy Hot Mess is one of several outsiders preparing to take their shot at a thinning group of top contenders. Last week, trainer Steve Asmussen said Summer Starlet, the likely favorite, will miss the race because of tendon inflammation in her hind leg.

In her place, Emphatic has taken over as the leading contender for Brendan Walsh, having upset Summer Starlet in the Grade 1 Alcibiades on Oct. 2 at Keeneland. She earned a 95 Beyer Speed Figure in her second two-turn stakes victory, and while Summer Starlet finished 1 1/4 lengths behind, it was another 17 1/2 lengths back to third-place finisher Oh She Said Yes.

Miss Monica, the Del Mar Debutante winner ahead of Crazy Hot Mess, is now the clear second choice for Baffert. She earned an 87 Beyer in her stakes debut in September and has already worked at Churchill three times ahead of her first two-turn test at Keeneland later this month.