Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint: Doncho on long line for spot in the field
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The Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint is shaping up to be one of the toughest tickets at the championship event this year, with about 25 horses vying for a spot in the starting gate at Keeneland. Doncho is one of many stakes winners who would fit in the field perfectly, but for now, trainer Michelle Lovell can only hope for the opportunity.
“I thought that we needed to run really well in the [Grade 2 Woodford] to even be considered for the Breeders’ Cup,” Lovell said. “So hopefully we do make the cut. I think he’s worthy of the opportunity.”
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Since winning back-to-back listed stakes at Churchill Downs and Horseshoe Indianapolis over the summer, Doncho has run about as well with tougher luck in a pair of graded stakes. In the Grade 2 Troy in August, he fought on bravely between horses in the stretch at Saratoga and was elevated to second after Waralo was disqualified for bumping.
After that performance in New York, which was more of a tussle than a race near the end, Lovell gave the 5-year-old gelding eight weeks before bringing him back in the Woodford on Oct. 3 at Keeneland. He led at the top of the stretch before fading to third behind Joe Shiesty and No Nay Hudson.
“I think we just got a little tired” after eight weeks off, Lovell said. “Unfortunately, we had a lot of air, but that’s a different turf course. I’m glad he got over it because everybody questioned whether we were scared of the Keeneland turf. But everybody is, unless you’re European.”
The trainers for all three of the Woodford’s top finishers have expressed enthusiastic interest in trying the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. In any other year, the race would be a useful prep late in the season, but with the Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland this year, it becomes an even more important prelude. Trainer Eric Foster said he has every intention of entering Joe Shiesty, who won with a 103 Beyer Speed Figure, while Wesley Ward said he will consider No Nay Hudson.
“He ran a bang-up race the other day against a very fast horse in Joe Shiesty, who’s at the top of his game right now,” Ward said of No Nay Hudson last week. “This is his home, so he’s going to run a big race.”
But while those two are arguably coming off the best performances of their careers, Lovell said she could not help but think Doncho has more to offer. In June, the speedy gelding defeated Joe Shiesty in the $225,000 Mighty Beau at Churchill Downs with a 103 Beyer of his own. After the Woodford, jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. told the trainer he wished he had challenged more in the early going.
“I take nothing away from Joe Shiesty,” Lovell said. “We beat him in the Mighty Beau and then he beat us in the Woodford. That’s a handy little horse like mine, just really game and gutsy. So much respect to him.”
Lovell, a local trainer who sent Just Might to the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Keeneland in 2020, would love another chance on the big stage, but the chance at a rematch provides nearly as much reason for her to try and get him in.
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