Breeders' Cup Mile: Wise Dan still one to beat despite loss

Make no mistake: Wise Dan remains the favorite and most likely winner of the 2013 Breeders’ Cup Mile, but his aura of invincibility faded Saturday at Keeneland, where waves of heavy rain turned the Shadwell Turf Mile into the Shadwell Polytrack Mile, and Wise Dan gave futile chase behind pace-setting Silver Max and had to settle for second in a race that retained its Grade 1 status despite the surface switch.

Wise Dan ran well in defeat, but defeat it was, his first since a second-place finish to Ron the Greek in the Stephen Foster Handicap on June 16, 2012. The end of Wise Dan’s winning streak came on Polytrack, not turf, where he earned his 2012 Horse of the Year award, but Wise Dan had run exceptionally on the all-weather surface at Keeneland in the past, winning the 2012 Ben Ali Stakes in a time that produced a track record as well as a 117 Beyer Speed Figure. Wise Dan was reported Sunday to have come out of his race in good shape, and he will move on to a defense of his Mile title and a rematch with Silver Max.

Silver Max, in contrast to Wise Dan, was making his first start on a synthetic surface when he wired the Shadwell, where he set a rapid pace and doggedly held clear a champion’s stretch rally. In so doing, Silver Max not only got back to but surpassed his best form of last year at age 3, something that seemed highly unlikely as Silver Max struggled to find himself earlier this year. Silver Max ran his way into the BC Mile with the performance, trainer Dale Romans said Sunday, and in so doing sets up a confrontation with Obviously, another long-confirmed front-runner.

After Obviously disappointed in Saturday’s BC Mile prep at Santa Anita, the City of Hope Mile Stakes, his trainer, Mike Mitchell, told Daily Racing Form a change in tactics would occur in the Breeders’ Cup. In the City of Hope, Endorsement made a beeline for the early lead, setting a hot pace as Joe Talamo settled Obviously into a tracking spot. Obviously easily passed Endorsement when asked for run at the quarter pole, but his final furlong was disappointing, with three horses flying past him to push Obviously into fourth at the finish. Mitchell wants Obviously to race on the lead, and that is how he will be ridden in the Mile. Silver Max can rate a bit in a pinch, but the Mile draw will be critical, with Silver Max’s connections surely hoping to break outside of Obviously.

Meanwhile, the City of Hope featured a breakout performance from No Jet Lag, who beat He Be Fire N Ice by a half-length for his first stakes win. No Jet Lag, a 3-year-old gelding by BC Turf winner Johar, was making just his second start since being imported from England, and he has become a different horse in the U.S. No Jet Lag showed some promise last year at 2, but his two races earlier this year in England were dreadful, leading owner Anthony Ramsden to send No Jet Lag to trainer Simon Callaghan in California. No Jet Lag won a first-level allowance race at Del Mar in his first start for Callaghan this summer, and showed good positional speed and a solid turn of foot in the City of Hope, and Callaghan said if all is well he will next start in the Mile.

City of Hope runner-up He Be Fire N Ice also is in good form, losing by just a half-length Saturday after closing to within a half-length of Obviously in the Aug. 25 Del Mar Mile. California-bred He Be Fire N Ice, however, is not Breeders’ Cup-eligible and would have to be supplemented to the Mile.
In France on Sunday, Moonlight Cloud delivered an electric finishing kick to win the Group 1 Prix de la Foret at seven furlongs, scoring by three lengths after racing last of 11 with a quarter-mile left in the race. But the Foret and all of Moonlight Cloud’s best performances have come in one-turn or straight-course races, and the two-turn BC Mile in 2012 produced a career-worst performance. Trainer Freddie Head had not totally ruled out a return trip to the Mile as of Monday, but Moonlight Cloud is more likely to travel to Hong Kong in December – where she can get her one-turn race – rather than to Santa Anita in November.

In fact, European participation in the Mile still has not taken firm shape, even at this late date, and not a single overseas horse has been fully committed to the field. That’s in part because of the presence of the rich Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on British Champions Day Oct. 19 at Ascot, a race that will include several premier European milers, and should help determine the look of the group that will attempt to do what a week ago would’ve seemed outlandish – hand Wise Dan a second straight defeat.