Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies: Songbird will be facing fresh pair

Songbird moved to the top of the 2-year-old filly division with her 4 1/2-length win in the Chandelier Stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday and is the likely favorite for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies – especially since her top rivals from the East, Rachel’s Valentina and Tap to It, will train up to the Oct. 31 race.

Trained by Jerry Hollendorfer, Songbird is a perfect 3 for 3. Although the Chandelier was a Win and You’re In race for the Juvenile Fillies, Songbird was not nominated to the Breeders’ Cup program as a foal, and owner Rick Porter needs to make a $100,000 horses-of-racing-age nomination, which, according to Hollendorfer, he plans to do.

The final two Win and You’re In races for the Juvenile Fillies will be run this week. The Alcibiades is Friday at Keeneland, and the Frizette is Saturday at Belmont Park.

Todd Pletcher was considering the Alcibiades for the undefeated Rachel’s Valentina, who earned a fees-paid berth in the Juvenile Fillies by winning the Spinaway at Saratoga, but on Saturday, he said he would train her up to the race.

“She has shown she runs well fresh,” Pletcher said.

Rachel’s Valentina is scheduled to van from Saratoga, where she has been training, to Kentucky this week.

:: BREEDERS’ CUP 2015: See DRF’s top contenders

Trainer Bob Baffert did not enter Sorrento Stakes winner Pretty N Cool in the Alcibiades. He said by text Tuesday he would point her to the Grade 2 Matron, a six-furlong race at Belmont Park on Oct. 18.

Trainer Doug O’Neill has three fillies under consideration for the Juvenile Fillies. He trains Land Over Sea, who was second behind Songbird in the Chandelier.

“She came out of the race great,” O’Neill said Sunday. “We’re definitely considering the Breeders’ Cup.”

O’Neill has Gomo in the Alcibiades. She drew post 1 in the 11-horse field, with Mario Gutierrez named to ride. Gomo has raced twice on dirt and twice on turf. The Juvenile Fillies Turf is also an option for her.

The O’Neill-trained Del Mar maiden winner Where’s the D is scheduled to run in the Frizette.

“We huddled with the owners and wanted to keep the three of them separated,” O’Neill said. “We thought the track [at Santa Anita] suited Land Over Sea the best.”

Trainer Kelly Breen decided this week to train Bold Quality up to the Juvenile Fillies. Bold Quality finished a rallying second to Dothraki Queen – who is entered in the Alcibiades – in the Sept. 12 Pocahontas at Churchill Downs but was disqualified to third for bumping a rival entering the stretch.

“We’re staying right here at Monmouth with her,” Breen said. “We will probably send her in for one breeze at Keeneland.”

Trainer Ralph Nicks said shortly after the Sept. 5 Spinaway that he would train runner-up Tap to It into the Breeders’ Cup. Nicks said he, owner Mandy Pope, and her adviser, Todd Quast, were in agreement.

:: Breeders’ Cup Challenge: Results, replays, charts, and more

Tap to It won her career debut at Saratoga and then was beaten one length in the Spinaway.

“She was not at Saratoga very long, and she came back in three weeks in the Spinaway,” Nicks said. “It’s the right decision. I’m fine training her up to the race.”

Special connection to filly

She’s All Ready is a special filly to owner Michael Salerno, and not just because she is 2 for 2 and will start in the Grade 1 Frizette at Belmont Park on Saturday.

Salerno, the president of an employee-benefits and retirement-planning business in Red Bank, N.J., owned horses with his older cousin Peter Walsh for more than a decade. Walsh was the more experienced of the two and taught Salerno the ins and outs of the business.

In August 2014, Walsh picked She’s All Ready out of the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred preferred yearling sale at Saratoga, and he and Salerno bought her for $37,000.

Not long after, health issues caught up with Walsh, and in February, he died at age 61. She’s All Ready was one of several horses entered in the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale of 2-year-olds in training in May to help settle Walsh’s estate. Salerno, 43, went to Maryland and bought her back for his Nirvana Stables for $45,000.

“He was my best friend,” Salerno said of Walsh. “You can’t choose your family, but you can pick your friends.”

She’s All Ready, a daughter of Girolamo trained by Jim Ryerson, has yet to be tested. She won a statebred maiden race at Saratoga on Aug. 7 by 8 1/4 lengths and three weeks later was clearly best as a heavy favorite in the $200,000 Seeking the Ante, a 6 1/2-furong race for New York-bred 2-year-old fillies.

She’s All Ready is Salerno’s first stakes winner. She is also a lasting connection to his friend and mentor.

– additional reporting by Steve Andersen