Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf: California owner LaRoche running longshot Euro filly
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Fiery Lucy may only be the winner of a June maiden race, but with some luck she would have won the Grade 3 Weld Park Stakes in Ireland last month.
A neck loss in that race was enough for Fiery Lucy to be pre-entered for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 1. The hope is that she can make sufficient improvement to produce a surprise result in the one-mile race.
“We’ll give it a shot,” California-based co-owner Lindsay LaRoche said on Wednesday. “There are so many variables.”
The factors include where Fiery Lucy draws in a 14-horse field for a two-turn race. She will need a trouble-free trip to win what is typically an intensely run race.
Trained by Gavin Cromwell, Fiery Lucy will face some of the same top-class competition in the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf that she faced in Ireland. Fiery Lucy was beaten by Heavens Gate in the Weld Stakes at seven furlongs, an improvement from a second by 1 1/4 lengths to that rival in the Ballyhane Stakes at six furlongs in August.
“I’d put it this way – we were a length behind her at six furlongs and a neck behind at seven furlongs,” LaRoche said. “We think a mile will do the trick.
“Gavin thinks the eight furlongs on a track like Del Mar should suit Fiery perfectly.”
Cromwell, 50, is based in Ireland and has a dual-purpose stable. This weekend, for example, he has contenders in major jump races at Cheltenham Racecourse in Britain and at the Dundalk all-weather meeting in Ireland.
LaRoche, who is retired from a career in financial services, lives in Lafayette, Calif., and races in the United States under the stable name Highland Yard LLC.
LaRoche’s runners have raced extensively in California and across the country and have included the stakes winners Amaranth and Walk Close and the stakes-placed Snicket. Through a partnership, he owned Venetian Harbor, the winner of three Grade 2 races in California and Kentucky in 2020 and 2021. Venetian Harbor was eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Keeneland in 2020.
In 2018, the Cromwell-trained Princess Yaiza was ninth in the BC Filly and Mare Turf at Churchill Downs for LaRoche.
Fiery Lucy is expected to race against such notable American stakes winners as May Day Read, Scythian, and Thought Process. From Europe, she will meet Heavens Gate and the highly rated Lake Victoria, the winner of two Group 1 races in England and Ireland in September. Heavens Gate and Lake Victoria are trained by Aidan O’Brien.
The trip from Ireland to Del Mar covers more than 5,000 miles, a long trip, for sure, but one LaRoche said is worth the journey.
“There are very good American horses in the race, including the one in our backyard at Santa Anita,” LaRoche said in reference to Thought Process. “Other than Lake Victoria it should be very wide open.
“I think post draw means a lot. We’ll give it a shot.
“A lot of it is about the fun.”
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