Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf: Weekend preps should help identify contenders

The leading contenders for the Grade 1, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf should become a lot clearer Sunday. There are four major preps for the Juvenile Turf, including three Win and You’re In races, beginning with the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at Longchamp in France.

European-based horses have won four of the six previous runnings of the Juvenile Turf, and Pounced used the Lagardere as his final prep before winning the 2009 Juvenile Turf. It still is too early to know if any of the horses running in the Lagardere are being pointed to the Juvenile Turf, however.

Most of the horses entered in the Grade 3 Pilgrim at Belmont Park and the Grade 3 Bourbon at Keeneland will take advantage of the fees-paid benefit of winning a Win and You’re In race.

With trainer Todd Pletcher electing to run Grade 2 With Anticipation winner Bashart in the Bourbon, the Pilgrim appears to be a wide-open race. Pletcher will be well represented in the Pilgrim by Due Diligence, who was an impressive winner when he debuted going 5 1/2 furlongs at Saratoga for trainer Chad Brown. Due Diligence was sold following the race, and Pletcher was hoping to run him in the Summer Stakes at Woodbine, a Win and You’re In race, but he got sick and instead will make his stakes debut in the Pilgrim.

Brown has a couple of solid replacements in Bobby’s Kitten and Shadow Banking. Shadow Banking could end up being the favorite off his sharp win going 1 1/16 miles in his debut at Belmont. The 81 Beyer Speed Figure he earned is the highest in the prospective field.

Boji Moon and Bashart look like the main players in the Bourbon, but it is hard to get past just how impressive Boji Moon looked when he romped under wraps in the Kentucky Downs Juvenile. Trained by Chris Richard, Boji Moon went into the Kentucky Downs Juvenile off two blowouts in Iowa-bred races at Prairie Meadows and proved that he can compete in open company with his easy victory. Boji Moon is not Breeders’ Cup-eligible, however, and his owners would have to pay $200,000 for him to run in the Juvenile Turf.

Trainer Danny Pish is hoping for a big effort from Got Shades in the $100,000 Zuma Beach at Santa Anita. Diamond Bachelor figures to be favored off his sharp win in the Oak Tree Juvenile at Del Mar.

Got Shades is coming off a win in the $100,000 Sunday Silence at Louisiana Downs. The three-quarter-length winning margin over Mighty Brown is a bit deceiving, as jockey Roman Chapa had him well in hand after he made the lead at the eighth pole. Pish was pleased with his four-furlong move in 46.80 seconds over the main track with Joe Talamo aboard at Santa Anita on Monday.

“He seems to have made the trip over in good shape,” Pish said. “He ran well in his first start at Lone Star, which is similar to the turf course here, so he shouldn’t mind the track. Talamo must have been happy with the work because his agent isn’t going around trying to find another horse to ride.”

Trainer Doug O’Neill is expecting Home School to move forward off his third-place finish in the Oak Tree Juvenile. An Irish-bred son of Intense Focus, Home School was coming off a second-place finish in the Group 3 Tyros Stakes at Leopardstown on July 25.

“We ran him right off the plane, and I think he’s settled in nicely and put on some weight,” O’Neill said.