Breeders' Cup: Team Valor International considers supplementing Lucky Chappy to Juvenile Turf

Team Valor International could have two runners in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, if the well-known partnership decides to supplement the promising import Lucky Chappy to the Grade 1 race.

In his North American debut last Sunday in the Grade 3 Bourbon at Keeneland, Lucky Chappy got away slowly and then lagged behind the field before closing strongly for third.

Team Valor purchased Lucky Chappy privately after he captured a July 3 stakes in Italy. Team Valor’s Jeff Lowe said the deadline for Breeders’ Cup’s special open enrollment for 2-year-olds, when they could be supplemented for just $6,000, was June 30, and it will cost $100,000 to make Lucky Chappy eligible now. Lowe said Team Valor CEO Barry Irwin is pondering all options for the Irish-bred son of High Chaparral.

Team Valor also owns unbeaten State of Play, who got a fees-paid berth into the BC Juvenile Turf when he took the Grade 2 With Anticipation, a Win and You’re In stakes at Saratoga. State of Play was subsequently scratched from the Grade 3 Pilgrim at Belmont because of the boggy conditions and was forced to miss the Bourbon after spiking a fever after shipping to Keeneland, according to Lowe.

Trainer Dale Romans in on the fence regarding which BC Juvenile route race is best for Breeders’ Futurity winner Dullahan, who didn’t show much while sprinting on the dirt at Churchill in the summer. Dullahan was in good turf form prior to earning his diploma in the Grade 1 Futurity over Keeneland’s Polytrack last Saturday.

The final Win and You’re In event, the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket last Saturday, appears to have just one potential starter for the BC Juvenile Turf, Red Duke, who finished eighth in the prestigious seven-furlong event.