Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint: Brightwork could turn back in turf debut
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The one certainty ahead of Monday’s pre-entry deadline for the Breeders’ Cup is that the newest kid on the block, the Juvenile Turf Sprint, should once again have an overflow field with an international cast. Since it was added to the Breeders’ Cup program in 2018, each edition has drawn a full field, with also-eligibles scratched off the program.
As of Wednesday, the Breeders’ Cup is listing 22 candidates for the five-furlong Juvenile Turf Sprint – 13 based in North America, with nine European-based possibilities. The field is limited to 12 starters, with four also-eligibles on the program.
The Breeders’ Cup is aware of three Juvenile Turf Sprint candidates who are also under consideration for other races on the Friday program – Crown Imperial and Hidden Class for the Juvenile Fillies Turf, which is also likely to oversubscribe, and, intriguingly, Brightwork for the Juvenile Fillies.
Brightwork has never raced on turf, but the Juvenile Turf Sprint is the lone Breeders’ Cup race that would keep her around one turn, at which she is unbeaten, including wins in the Grade 3 Adirondack and Grade 1 Spinaway at Saratoga. She was most recently fifth in the Grade 1 Alcibiades at Keeneland when trying two turns for the first time.
Big Evs, the winner of the Group 2 Flying Childers, Group 3 Molecomb, and Windsor Castle, is the favorite on the early line by Daily Racing Form’s David Aragona. He is being prepared to take on the challenges of travel, a left-handed course, and an American starting gate, according to trainer Mick Appleby.
“He’s in good form, we’ve just freshened him up a bit and he seems in good order,” Appleby told the European press. “Hopefully he stays that way until he goes. He flies out on Oct. 26. He’s got to have 48 hours in quarantine, then he’ll be able to go out on track two or three times before the race.
“We’re going to take him for a racecourse gallop so we can run him around a bend. Obviously he’s never raced around a bend before but I don’t think it’ll be an issue. He’s got to do a bit of [gate] work with a bell but I think we’re going to do that when he’s out there so he can get used to the [gate] there.”
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