Breeders' Cup Turf: Found primed for repeat win

ARCADIA, Calif. – Autumn is the right time of year for Found, the only filly in Saturday’s $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita.

In 2015, Found won the BC Turf at Keeneland in her third start within a month. This year, Found is on the same campaign. She won the $5.6 million Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Chantilly Racecourse in France on Oct. 2 and was second in the Champion Stakes at Ascot on Oct. 15.

Those races have led to the BC Turf, where Found will attempt to become the first repeat winner since Conduit in 2008-09. If she wins, Found will add to trainer Aidan O’Brien’s remarkable success in the race. He has a record five wins, all since 2002, and said Found can add to those achievements.

“She couldn’t be better,” O’Brien said this week.

In late October, there was talk that Found would run in the BC Classic on dirt, a plan abandoned last weekend. Instead, Found will be at her strength in a race at 1 1/2 miles on a firm turf course.

Found is part of a field of 12 that lost a starter Wednesday when the outsider Metaboss was withdrawn with a sesamoid injury. Found’s primary competition is stablemate Highland Reel, a Group 1 winner this year who was second in the Arc in his most recent start, and Flintshire and Ectot, winners of Grade 1 turf races in New York.

The race has significant depth. Da Big Hoss has won four consecutive stakes in Kentucky, New York, and Illinois. Mondialiste won the Arlington Million in August, while Ashleyluvssugar has emerged as the leading turf distance runner in California in recent months.

Highland Reel won the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot in July and beat Flintshire when they were first and second in the Group 1 Hong Kong Vase last December.

“He’s a solid horse, and he’s going very well,” O’Brien said. “We think a mile and a half on firm ground will suit him. We’ve had this in mind for him since the Arc.”

The conditions should work in favor of Found, Flintshire, and Ectot.

Found, who races for Michael Tabor, Sue Magnier, and Derrick Smith, won the Arc on firm turf. She was beaten two lengths by Almanzor in the Champion Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on good turf, closing well in the final quarter-mile.

“There wasn’t a lot of pace at Ascot,” O’Brien said. “It was really a sprint down the stretch. It was not a grueling mile and a quarter.”

With a win Saturday, Found can become the first Arc winner to win the BC Turf. Since the BC Turf was launched in 1984, seven Arc winners have raced on a Breeders’ Cup program in the same year. Arc winners Trempolino in 1987 and Golden Horn in 2015 were second in the BC Turf. Sahkee won the 2001 Arc and was second in the BC Classic that year.

Flintshire, 6, was second in the 2014 BC Turf when trained in France by Andre Fabre. Earlier this year, Flintshire was the dominant runner in New York, winning the Grade 1 Manhattan in June, the Grade 2 Bowling Green in July, and the Grade 1 Sword Dancer on Aug. 27 in his first three starts for trainer Chad Brown.

The win streak ended with a second at 1-5 to Ectot in the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic on yielding turf at Belmont Park on Oct. 1. Ectot won by five lengths.

“On the backstretch, he wasn’t going well,” Brown said. “At that stage, I knew it wasn’t his day. He prefers firm ground.”

A firm turf course at Santa Anita gives Brown hope that Flintshire can rebound Saturday.

“He has to come up with his best, and he usually does,” he said.

Brown starts Money Multiplier, an outsider who was second in the Sword Dancer and fourth in the Joe Hirsch.

“If he runs his ‘A’ race on firm ground, he can get a piece,” Brown said.

Ectot ended a six-race losing streak in the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic. A 5-year-old, Ectot was a Group 1 winner in France at 2 in 2013 but was 17th of 20 in the Arc in 2014 behind Treve and Flintshire. Ectot joined trainer Todd Pletcher’s stable this year. The Joe Hirsch Turf Classic was his third start for Pletcher.

“I think he’s shown he’s regained his best form and perhaps improved a bit,” Pletcher said. “He doesn’t mind cut in the ground, but I think he’ll act well on this course. It’s a distance he really prefers. The key to Ectot’s success is how he settles, whether that’s on the pace or stalking someone.

“The horse has trained extremely well up to all his races. I think we learned something about him on every occasion. We learned something equipment-wise and shoeing-wise. It was more of a factor of him getting a few races under his belt.”