Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf: Injury to Blue Rose Cen leaves wide-open race
The biggest surprise regarding the pre-entries for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Nov. 4 at Keeneland is a name absent from the list of 23 candidates.
The French filly Blue Rose Cen was not pre-entered after suffering a bruised foot earlier this week, trainer Christopher Head wrote on Twitter. A five-length winner of the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac on Oct. 2 at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris, Blue Rose Cen would have been favored in the $1 million BC Juvenile Fillies Turf at a mile.
Instead, there is an increased chance that the race could produce a surprise result and an intense finish much like last year at Del Mar when 9-1 Pizza Bianca won by a half-length but had eight others within 2 3/4 lengths of her at the finish.
Pizza Bianca was second in the Grade 1 Natalma Stakes at Woodbine in September 2021 in her final start before the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf, and that same race this year may have a pivotal role in the outcome at Keeneland.
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The top three finishers of the Natalma at a mile on turf on Sept. 17 – Last Call, Cairo Consort, and G Laurie – were pre-entered in the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf. Last Call earned a fees-paid berth for winning the Natalma, while Cairo Consort and G Laurie were selected to be part of a field of 14 by a Breeders’ Cup panel.
The BC Juvenile Fillies Turf is a popular race. In the last two years, there were 19 pre-entries in 2020 and 18 last year.
With a robust 23 pre-entries, there are nine fillies on an also-eligible list, including stakes winners American Apple, Manhattan Jungle, and Showgirl Lynne B. Manhattan Jungle, a minor stakes winner in France in May, is the only foreign-trained runner on the also-eligible list.
The 14 fillies selected for the main field include 11 stakes winners and three stakes-placed runners.
Aside from Last Call, Pleasant Passage earned a fees-paid berth by winning the Grade 2 Miss Grillo Stakes at the Belmont at the Big A meeting on Oct. 1, while Delight earned a fees-paid berth for winning the Grade 2 Jessamine Stakes on Oct. 7 at Keeneland.
Free Look and Be Your Best were second and third in the Miss Grillo and were selected in the field of 14 by the BC panel, who were not as kind to Knockyoursocksoff and Bling, who were second and third in the Jessamine and are on the also-eligible list.
Knockyoursocksoff is first on the list, meaning that should one of the first 14 defect from the field she would gain a berth.
There are five foreign-trained fillies among the 14 selected, notably Midnight Mile, who is unbeaten in two starts and won the Group 3 Oh So Sharp Stakes at seven furlongs at Newmarket Racecourse in England on Oct. 7 for trainer Richard Fahey.
Trainer Aidan O’Brien of Ireland has two candidates in Meditate, who was second in the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes at six furlongs at Newmarket on Sept. 24 and has never raced at a mile, and Never Ending Story, third in the Prix Marcel Boussac.
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