Bulletin drills for Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. – Well Defined and Cookie Dough earned spots in the Breeders’ Cup with runaway victories in the 1 1/16-mile In Reality and My Dear Girl divisions of this year’s Florida Sire Series. But they aren’t the only juveniles who are Breeders’ Cup-bound exiting a one-sided victory on the rich Sire Series card Sept. 29 at Gulfstream Park.

Several hours before Well Defined and Cookie Dough turned in their dominant performances, an unraced 2-year-old named Bulletin set the stage for what was to come later in the day with an equally eye-catching seven-length triumph in the Hollywood Beach Stakes, decided at five furlongs on the turf. The performance earned Bulletin, a son of City Zip out of the Grade 3 winner Sue’s Good News, an 86 Beyer Speed Figure and plenty of respect from handicappers with an eye toward the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint on Nov. 2 at Churchill Downs.

In fact, Bulletin impressed trainer Todd Pletcher so much in his debut that he flew from New York to South Florida on Wednesday to be on hand at dawn the following morning to watch his newest star work five furlongs in 1:00.56 at the Palm Beach Downs training facility before turning right around and heading back home that afternoon.

Bulletin, working in company with an unraced 3-year-old maiden, posted splits of 24.23 seconds and 36.13 for the opening quarter and three-eighths before galloping out six furlongs in 1:15 over a somewhat cuppy surface at the training center located approximately 40 miles north of Gulfstream Park.

“We were looking for a good, strong work from him this morning to set him up [for the Juvenile Turf Sprint], and that’s exactly what we got,” said Pletcher, who now keeps a large string stabled year-round at Palm Beach Downs. “You don’t see a lot of horses shade 1:01 down here. This is exactly what he’d shown us in the mornings leading up to his debut. He always worked decently on the dirt, but you could see some improvement when we worked him on the grass, which makes sense considering his pedigree.”

Pletcher said he had Bulletin, a half-brother to Grade 1 winner Tiz Miz Sue, almost ready to run this summer at Saratoga but couldn’t get a race for him at the end of the meet.

“If there had been a turf sprint positioned at the end of the meet, we would have opted for that,” Pletcher said. “There was one at the beginning of September at Gulfstream, so we sent him down here, but the race didn’t fill several times. I even entered him once at 7 1/2 furlongs, and that race didn’t go either. Finally, when the stakes came up, we decided to take a shot in there, and it worked out. You just don’t see too many horses win a five-furlong turf race by seven lengths like he did.”

Pletcher said he’d love to have had one more race under Bulletin’s belt before the Breeders’ Cup.

“Obviously, his lack of experience coming into the Breeders’ Cup concerns me, but his debut was very impressive, and if he can improve on that a tick, the talent level is certainly there.”

Although Eric Cancel rode Bulletin to his debut win, Javier Castellano will have the call in the Breeders’ Cup, Pletcher said. Bulletin will have his final work for the Juvenile Turf Sprint next week at Palm Meadows.

◗ For the second consecutive Saturday, there is nary an allowance race at Gulfstream Park West, although there are a pair of maiden special weight dashes carrying purses of $60,000 apiece positioned on the first half of the program.

Pletcher will send out the likely favorite in the second of those races, to be decided at six furlongs, the first-time starter Avocado, a 2-year-old son of Noble Mission owned by the Repole Stable. Mertz, an Arindel homebred who finished second in a pair of maiden special weight races this season in New York, is the one to beat.