Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf: La Force needs one more defection to make field

ARCADIA, Calif. – With a five-furlong work in 1:00.40 here on Friday, La Force is being prepared as if she will start in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 4.

It may take the whole weekend to determine whether it was a necessary dress rehearsal.

La Force was not part of the selected field for the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf. The one-mile race drew 21 pre-entries, but will limited to 14 starters. With Honors was selected for the field, but is expected to run in the BC Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita on Nov. 5. Promise to Be True will likely run in the Group 1 Criterium International at Saint-Cloud in Paris on Sunday.

Their absences would allow Madam Dancealot and Happy Mesa to join the Juvenile Fillies Turf field. La Force is next on the list should another runner be declared from the race.

Her status may not be known until entries are taken on Monday.

Under any circumstances, La Force will be a longshot in the Juvenile Fillies Turf. The race is led by the North American stakes winners La Coronel, Lull, Miss Southern Miss, New Money Honey, and Victory to Victory, and the European stakes winners Intricately, Roly Poly, and Spain Burg.

A German-bred, La Force won her debut in Italy in May and was third in a minor stakes there in July before joining Patrick Gallagher’s stable in late summer. In her only start in the United States, La Force was third behind Miss Southern Miss and Happy Mesa in the Surfer Girl Stakes at a mile on turf here on Oct. 10.

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“She’s happy and healthy,” Gallagher said. “She had a nice race the other day and she’ll have to come on from it. She needs some luck and will have to improve.

“The owners are enthusiastic.”

La Force races for Ward and Roberta Williford of Dallas and Chuck Winner, the chairman of the California Horse Racing Board. They bought the filly in late summer.