Breeders' Cup Turf: Mira Mission getting good at right time
Last year, Mira Mission was a 3-year-old gelding who had yet to start in a stakes and had won a $50,000 claimer for maidens at Gulfstream Park in 2020. This fall, Mira Mission is on the verge of a start in the nation’s leading grass race, the $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Keeneland on Nov. 5.
Trained by Ian Wilkes, Mira Mission was second in the Grade 1 Sword Dancer Stakes at 1 1/2 miles at Saratoga on Aug. 27 in his first start at the same distance as the BC Turf. For his next start, Wilkes plans to run Mira Mission in the Grade 3 Sycamore Stakes at 1 1/2 miles at Keeneland on Oct. 14.
“I think I’ve got more improvement in him,” Wilkes said earlier this week. “As good as he ran in the Sword Dancer, that was like a Breeders’ Cup.”
Mira Mission will need a successful race in the $300,000 Sycamore to justify a start in the BC Turf, which annually brings together the best turf distance runners from the United States and several leading prospects from Europe.
The high-profile European stables responsible for the exacta in the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar are once again at the fore of the build-up to this year’s race.
Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin Racing won the 2021 BC Turf with Yibir, and this year plans to start Rebel’s Romance, who has won four consecutive stakes at 1 1/2 miles in England and Germany since late June. Trained by Charlie Appleby, Rebel’s Romance won the Group 1 Preis Von Europa at Cologne, Germany, on Sept. 25.
Broome, second in the 2021 BC Turf, was eighth at 86-1 in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on soft turf at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris last Sunday. Broome was 11th at 56-1 in the 2021 Arc de Triomphe before rebounding at Del Mar.
Trained by Aidan O’Brien, Broome won the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes at 1 1/2 miles at Royal Ascot in June and was fourth by 1 1/2 lengths as the 3-2 favorite in the Sword Dancer, his only race in the United States this year.
The Sword Dancer was won by Gufo, a top domestic candidate for the BC Turf who is scheduled to start in Saturday’s Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at 1 1/2 miles at the Belmont at Aqueduct meeting. Trained by Christophe Clement, Gufo closed well to finish second by a nose to Red Knight in the Grade 2 Kentucky Downs Turf Cup at 1 1/2 miles on Sept. 10.
Highland Chief has not raced since a fourth in the Grade 2 Bowling Green Stakes at 1 3/8 miles on turf at Saratoga. Trainer Graham Motion said earlier this week he was debating between the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic or the Sycamore Stakes for Highland Chief, who won the Grade 1 Man o’ War Stakes at 1 3/8 miles on turf at Belmont Park in May.
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