Breeders' Cup Mile: Domestic Spending may start off more than 14-month layoff
People murmur reverently about Da Hoss winning the 1998 Breeders’ Cup Mile. The 6-year-old gelding had won the 1996 BC Mile but didn’t race for nearly two years afterward, yet trainer Michael Dickinson had Da Hoss ready for a second Mile win off one lonely prep race at Colonial Downs.
Chad Brown may be sending Domestic Spending on an almost equally audacious mission.
Domestic Spending was set to start favored in the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar but came up with a soft-tissue injury the week of the race. He missed the winter, missed the summer turf season, and hasn’t seen racing action since Two Emmys upset him in the Mr. D Stakes at Arlington on Aug. 14, 2021. Two more encouraging breezes at Keeneland, though, and the gelding could make his comeback in the BC Mile.
“Pretty serious,” Brown said, when asked about the chance he’d enter Domestic Spending in the Mile. “I want to see how he works the next two weeks. He’s coming to hand very quickly.”
Domestic Spending had his first 2022 timed workout Aug. 29 at Saratoga; his five-furlong grass drill Oct. 15 at Keeneland was the seventh work since he rejoined Brown’s stable. Brown said Domestic Spending had about four months off following his injury before he began ramping back up.
“He hasn’t lost anything based on the work I saw this past week,” Brown said Tuesday. “You cross your fingers with something like this. A lot of them don’t make it back; the special ones do.”
Domestic Spending, a Kingman gelding owned by Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stables, won six of his first seven starts, his lone defeat a third in the Hall of Fame Stakes two summers ago at Saratoga. In the 2021 Turf Classic at Churchill Downs, Domestic Spending dead-heated for first with Colonel Liam, though it was Domestic Spending who appeared to have all the momentum at the wire.
Domestic Spending, off that 1 1/8-mile showing, came back with a dominant win in the 1 1/4-mile Manhattan, with Colonel Liam well beaten. But it was Domestic Spending taking a somewhat shocking loss at Arlington, defeated at odds of 2-5 by an unheralded rival.
Domestic Spending has raced at least 1 1/8 miles since he won a one-mile maiden and a one-mile first-level allowance to begin his career, and even beyond an extremely challenging comeback spot following a break of nearly 15 months, it’s fair to wonder if Domestic Spending is quick enough for this distance.
“I definitely don’t want to try a mile and a half with him right now. How he performs just depends on what his last three furlongs are. If I can get him to go 35 and change, he’ll have a chance,” Brown said.
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Brown believes his second Mile runner, 6-year-old mare Regal Glory, is set to improve upon a more than creditable second-place finish behind the Brown-trained In Italian in the First Lady Stakes earlier this month.
“I liked the prep for her,” said Brown. “I don’t think she had a hard trip, and I see her moving forward. She had a really good figure from the Jenny Wiley” last April, “and I can see her coming back to that.”
Regal Glory and Domestic Spending, should he run, will have Coolmore Turf Mile winner Annapolis to tackle in the BC Mile and, perhaps more imposingly, two horses that raced Oct. 15 on the British Champions card at Ascot.
Modern Games, the presumed Mile favorite off his smashing Woodbine Mile win and victory last autumn in the BC Juvenile Turf, finished a fine if soundly beaten second in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. The race was run down a straight course over very soft ground, and Modern Games prefers turns and firmer footing. The race’s winner, Bayside Boy, hadn’t been ruled out of the Mile as of Tuesday.
Kinross needed no Ascot excuse making short work of the British Champions Sprint over a straight six furlongs just two weeks after easily winning the Prix de la Foret, long a key BC Mile prep, going seven furlongs around a bend at Longchamp. Kinross’s connections have targeted the Mile for a couple months now, and their gelding is coming to Kentucky in absolutely roaring form.
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