Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf: Best Performance, Clement go way back

Best Performance caught trainer Christophe Clement’s eye in the first months of the year, well before the Fasig-Tipton March sale of 2-year-olds in training.

The filly was being prepared for the sale at Payson Park in Florida, where Clement’s stable spends the winter. At the sale, West Point Thoroughbreds bought Best Performance for $300,000 and sent her to Clement.

Seven months later, Clement is preparing Best Performance for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar for owners West Point Thoroughbreds, Tango Uniform Racing, and Robert Masiello.

“I liked her before the sale,” he said Wednesday. “She has a very good mind, very laid back. I think she’s a fun filly to be around.”

Best Performance earned a spot in the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf with a second by a length to Significant Form in the Grade 3 Miss Grillo Stakes on Oct. 1 at Belmont Park.

“She’s an accomplished 2-year-old,” Clement said. “She’s good and she’s sound.”

There were 18 fillies pre-entered Wednesday – 12 trained in North America, four from Ireland, and two from England – and 14 can start.

The Breeders’ Cup committee placed four horses on an also-eligible list – Stainless, who was second in the Jessamine at Keeneland; Retro, third in the Surfer Girl Stakes at Santa Anita; Princess Warrior, who was second in the Alcibiades Stakes on dirt at Keeneland; and the Irish maiden Goodthingstaketime.

Wednesday, California trainer Leonard Powell said Fatale Bere, winner of the Surfer Girl Stakes, is not certain to run. If she is not entered, Stainless would gain a berth.

Trainers Chad Brown, based in New York, and Aidan O’Brien, of Ireland, each has two leading contenders for the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf.

Brown has won the race a record three times in its nine runnings and is well positioned to add a fourth with Rushing Fall or Significant Form. Rushing Fall was the easy winner of the Grade 3 Jessamine Stakes on Oct. 11 at Keeneland in her stakes debut. Significant Form won the Grade 3 Miss Grillo Stakes in her stakes debut.

Rushing Fall is owned by Bob Edwards, who owns New Money Honey, winner of the 2016 BC Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita for Brown.

O’Brien has had nine starters in the race but never has won the Juvenile Fillies Turf. He has been second twice – with Heart Shaped in 2008 and Alice Springs in 2015. This year, he has two notable pre-entrants in Happily and September.

Happily has won consecutive Group 1 races – the Moyglare Stud Stakes in Ireland against fillies Sept. 10 and the Prix Jean Luc-Lagardere against males as the 7-5 favorite Oct. 1 at Chantilly Racecourse in France.

September was third in the Moyglare Stud Stakes and was beaten a nose in the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket Racecourse in England on Oct. 13.