Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf: Battleground will represent O'Brien
Sometimes it can be just days before departure when trainer Aidan O’Brien reveals the horse, or horses, he plans to send from Ireland for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. And it’s an important announcement: O’Brien is an annual participant in the Juvenile Turf and has won it four times in the race’s 13-year history, including in 2015, the only year Keeneland hosted the Breeders’ Cup, with Hit It a Bomb.
But this year, O’Brien ended the suspense early, saying last weekend that Battleground is his intended runner in the BC Juvenile Turf next month. O’Brien left slightly open the chance of sending an additional runner, but it sounds like Battleground will come over if all goes well with the colt.
All did not go well when Battleground was supposed to race Sept. 13 in the National Stakes at The Curragh. The colt coughed the week of the race and had to be scratched. So, in the BC Juvenile Turf, Battleground will be racing for the first time since July 28. Nonetheless, he figures to be a prime player.
Battleground finished fifth in his career debut, but went from there to a good win in the Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot before capturing the Vintage Stakes over seven furlongs at Goodwood by two lengths. Battleground’s race record holds ample promise, as does his pedigree. War Front is his sire, and the Galileo mare Found is his dam. Battleground is the first foal to race for Found, who upset Golden Horn to win the 2015 BC Turf at Keeneland.
Battleground, had his race pattern not fallen off track, might have started this past weekend in the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket, but O’Brien had plenty of ammunition for that race anyway, running one-two with St. Mark’s Basilica and Wembley. Neither is expected to show up at Keeneland, but fifth-place Cadillac has a fees-paid entry from winning the Champions Juvenile Stakes this summer and is expected to start. Cadillac appeared to run better around a left-handed turn winning the Juvenile at Leopardstown than he did down a straight, rain-softened course at Newmarket.
Another Juvenile Turf hopeful in Go Athletico emerged from this past weekend’s Group 2 Criterium Maisons-Laffitte (run this year at Chantilly). Go Athletico, racing on heavy ground, gained on pace-setting Plainchant but wound up second by three-quarters of a length.
In other news from France, Sealiway reportedly no longer is being considered for the Juvenile Turf, though his connections, in the days after his blowout win Oct. 4 in the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere, expressed an interest in traveling to Keeneland.