Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint: Oleksandra following a layoff tradition
The international contingent for the Breeders’ Cup lost several major names in the past week, including ace British sprinter Battaash, who was declared out of the Turf Sprint in favor of freshening him for a 2021 campaign. The connections of other European Turf Sprint candidates, including Group 1 winner Glass Slippers, are still finalizing their plans. However, the race is expected to have some international flair thanks to Team Valor’s comebacking homebred Oleksandra, who is looking to continue a run of long layoffs for Turf Sprint winners.
Australian-born Oleksandra hasn’t raced since her dramatic victory in the Grade 1 Jaipur Stakes on the June 20 Belmont Stakes undercard. She emerged with a broken splint bone in a foreleg, which her connections believe occurred when she was bumped at the break. Initially confined to stall rest, the mare has been given ample time to ease back into training by Neil Drysdale. With the clock now ticking toward the Breeders’ Cup, which her connections have never wavered in targeting, she reappeared on the work tab Oct. 2 at Belmont with a three-furlong breeze. Since then, she has turned in three half-mile moves.
Four times in 12 prior runnings of the Turf Sprint, the winner has made their final prep in mid-June or earlier. That includes last year, when Belvoir Bay went from a fourth-place finish in the Jaipur on June 8 to the Turf Sprint on Nov. 2.
Another standout mare, Mizdirection, came into both of her Breeders’ Cup victories off layoffs. In 2012, she was second in the Great Lady M. on May 27 before the Nov. 3 Turf Sprint. The following year, she was fifth in the Just a Game on June 8 before returning to win the Nov. 2 Turf Sprint. The only other two-time winner of the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint is Stormy Liberal, who came into the first of his victories, on Nov. 4, 2017, having previously finished eighth in the June 10 Jaipur.
Oleksandra, foaled in October 2014, is from the first crop of Team Valor’s Kentucky Derby and Dubai World Cup winner and champion Animal Kingdom, who began his stud career in Australia. Her dam is the Caesour mare Alexandra Rose, a Group 2 winner in her native South Africa, a Grade 3 winner in the United States, and stakes-placed in Dubai.
Oleksandra would be the third Australian-bred to start in a Breeders’ Cup race. Strawberry Road finished fourth and second, respectively, in the 1984 and 1985 editions of the Turf. Starspangledbanner was 10th in the 2012 Turf Sprint. Oleksandra began her career on her native continent, but did not win her maiden until her first U.S. start, in October 2018 at Santa Anita – that race coming off a layoff of nearly 11 months.
The mare capped her 2019 season with a victory in the Grade 3 Franklin County at Keeneland, a race run at the same distance and on the same course as the Breeders’ Cup. She’s made just two starts since, finishing second in the Grade 2 Monrovia in May to Jolie Olimpica before winning the Jaipur. In the latter, she was last of eight, 7 1/2 lengths back, with a quarter-mile remaining and made a furious rally to edge Kanthaka by a neck. Her time was 1:06.80, just off the course record of 1:06.74.
“She is so much fun to watch race,” Drysdale said. “She makes life very exciting.”