Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint: Four stakes this weekend should bring focus
?q=100)
The only virtual certainty in trying to forecast the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint is that the race should have a full field – and that the picture for that starting gate should begin coming into focus following four stakes this coming weekend.
The Juvenile Turf Sprint, the newest race added to the Breeders’ Cup program, in 2018, has in each of its five runnings wound up with the maximum number of runners permitted by the configuration of the host track, with program also-eligibles excluded each time in overflow lineups. Adding to the confusion, a number of sprint candidates are likely to also pre-enter the Juvenile Turf or Juvenile Fillies Turf the week before the Breeders’ Cup, with connections weighing the best options for inexperienced horses and assessing their options on the races’ respective preference lists before final entries are due.
This weekend, some key activity toward those assessments kicks off when Breeders’ Cup host track Santa Anita will run the $100,000 Speakeasy Stakes for 2-year-olds sprinting on its turf course on Saturday. The following day, Belmont at Aqueduct cards the Grade 3, $150,000 Futurity, a Win and You’re In event for the division, and the sister race, the Grade 3, $150,000 Matron, while Keeneland runs the $250,000 Indian Summer Stakes.
The Indian Summer, the only one of the four preps drawn at press time, has a large field of 10. Bledsoe will be saddled by Wesley Ward, who has won three of the prior five editions of the Juvenile Turf Sprint. However, the path to this year’s race appears to go through another barn as George Weaver has a strong trio.
The group is led by Crimson Advocate, most recently seen winning the Group 2 Queen Mary in June at the Royal Ascot meeting. While that filly and No Nay Mets, who has won two stakes since returning from his only career loss at Royal Ascot, are training up to the Breeders’ Cup, Weaver will send out Bolton Landing Stakes winner Amidst Waves in the Indian Summer. The mission is twofold – to secure a good spot on the preference list in what will likely be an overflow group and to keep the somewhat nervous filly from coming toward the Breeders’ Cup too fresh.
The only Win and You’re In races for this division preceding the Futurity were held in Europe earlier this year. Valiant Force scored a massive upset in the Group 2 Norfolk at Royal Ascot, and the Breeders’ Cup was immediately mentioned as a possibility for the runner co-owned by AMO Racing, which is seeking to expand its U.S. presence. Vandeek won the Group 1 Prix Morny in August and Group 1 Middle Park last week, but is considered more of a Juvenile Turf candidate. Europe produced its first Juvenile Turf Sprint winner last year at Keeneland in Mischief Magic.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.