Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf: Lily's Candle earns quick return on investment

Last Saturday evening, Lily’s Candle was purchased for approximately $448,500 by Martin Schwartz at the Arqana Arc sale in Paris. By early Sunday afternoon, Lily’s Candle was a Group 1 stakes winner with a free ticket to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Nov. 2 at Churchill Downs.

“This is my favorite time of the year,” Schwartz wrote in a text message Sunday.

Lily’s Candle was a 27-1 outsider in the $460,360 Prix Marcel Boussac at a mile, the first race on the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe program at Longchamp. The win represented a first-ever victory in a Group 1 for trainer Fabrice Vermeulen, who said he was not expecting the upset.

“We wanted to be placed in a Group 1, but she surprised us,” Vermeulen said after the race. “She had a good run and finished with style. A great race for our first Group 1 win.”

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Vermeulen, 41, has nearly 100 horses in training in France. Lily’s Candle will be his first starter in the United States.

Lily’s Candle, by Style Vendome, closed in the final quarter-mile to win the eight-runner Prix Marcel Boussac by about a head over Matematica. Lily’s Candle has won 3 of 5 starts. She won a minor stakes in Vichy, France, in August in her third start.

Fillies who ran in the Prix Marcel Boussac have mixed results in the Juvenile Fillies Turf. Flotilla was fourth in the 2012 Marcel Boussac and won the Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita. In 2016, Schwartz’s Cavale Doree was fifth in the Prix Marcel Boussac and third in the Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita.

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The only winner of the Prix Marcel Boussac to start in the Juvenile Fillies Turf was Elusive Kate, who finished eighth in 2011. Found, who won the 2014 Prix Marcel Boussac, won the 2015 BC Turf against males at Keeneland. Wuheida, who won the 2016 Prix Marcel Boussac, won the 2017 BC Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar.

The field for this year’s Juvenile Fillies Turf could add a few runners from Friday’s Group 1 Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket. Aidan O’Brien had three prominent nominations with Hermosa, Just Wonderful, and Zagitova. Remarkably, O’Brien has yet to win the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf and typically has at least one runner in the race.

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Monday’s Surfer Girl Stakes at Santa Anita was won by the 32-1 outsider Lakerball, who is unlikely to start in the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf, trainer Doug O’Neill said.

Lady Prancealot, who closed from fifth to finish second by a head, will be considered, trainer Richard Baltas said. Lady Prancealot was second to Summering in the Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf on Sept. 3. Summering was third in the Surfer Girl Stakes at 2-5.