Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf: Field shaping up with no clear standout
The decision to hold Mysterious Night out of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf means handicappers will have to dig deeper for clues.
Mysterious Night would clearly have been the favorite for the Juvenile Turf following his blowout win in the Grade 1 Summer Stakes at Woodbine, but according to Breeders’ Cup officials, Godolphin and trainer Charlie Appleby intend to run Silver Knott, not Mysterious Night, in the Juvenile Turf.
Silver Knott comes off a hard-fought win in the Group 3 Autumn Stakes at Newmarket. He’s a capable colt in his own right and is the 5-2 early favorite on David Aragona’s morning line for the race, but Silver Knott doesn’t have the vibe of an inevitable winner the way Mysterious Night did.
The Juvenile Turf field remained in flux this week, with 18 horses still under consideration for the race. Oxymore, second to Webslinger in the $500,000 Nownownow at Monmouth, is possible both for the Juvenile Turf and the Juvenile Turf Sprint, according to his trainer, Chad Brown. And Nagirroc, winner of the six-furlong Futurity last out, is under consideration for a stretch-out to a mile in the Juvenile Turf, trainer Graham Motion said.
The Juvenile Turf Sprint, headed by American filly Love Reigns and European shippers Blackbeard and The Platinum Queen, appears to have more talented horses at the top than the Juvenile Turf.
Brown has I’m Very Busy, second in the Pilgrim to Juvenile Turf hope Lucky Dude, as his best hope for a second win in the race following Structor in 2019.
Pilgrim third-place finisher Lachaise also could try to get into an oversubscribed race. Andthewinneris won the Keeneland prep for the Juvenile Turf, the Bourbon Stakes, while Really Good, third-place finisher in the Bourbon, also made the Breeders’ Cup list of presumed intended pre-entrants.
Packs a Wahlop is the only California-based horse expected to be pre-entered, and his 82 Beyer Speed Figure from his Zuma Beach Stakes win earlier this month is the highest turf-route figure this year among North American-based 2-year-olds.
Three other European horses – Holloway Boy, Dubai Mile, and Charyn – are possible pre-entrants, according to Breeders’ Cup officials. Holloway Boy finished third in the Autumn Stakes but did not perform appreciably worse than Silver Knott. Silver Knott got a clear outside run to the finish in the straight-course Autumn, while Holloway Boy was stymied trying to move forward along the stand’s side rail in the race’s final quarter-mile.
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Dubai Mile comes out of a different straight-course mile, the Group 2 Royal Lodge, where he finished second, beaten a half-length. There were only three others in the Royal Lodge, however, and the race winner, The Foxes, was making his stakes debut, as was Dubai Mile.
Charyn is based in England with trainer Roger Varian but made his last start in France, winning the Group 2 Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte. That race was contested over six furlongs. Charyn has never raced farther than that distance, and he is unlikely to excel at a two-turn mile if pedigree is any guide: Charyn’s sire, Dark Angel, was a sprinter, as was his dam, Futoon, and her only other foal to race.
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