Dank among 17 F&M Turf pre-entries

Eight top-class Europeans, led by defending champion Dank, were among the 17 pre-entries announced Wednesday for the $2 Million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 1 – setting up an intriguing international matchup.

Although American horses are expected to have strength in numbers, with nine pre-entries, led by Stephanie’s Kitten, Dayatthespa, Parranda, and Emollient, the Europeans are the favorites.

Dank likely will go off as the public choice due to what she accomplished in 2013, when she won both the Beverly D. and Filly and Mare Turf when shipping to America, but she isn’t as clear a favorite as last year, when she started at odds of 3-2. She has raced just twice in 2014, running a distant third in the Group 1 Dubai Duty Free in March and then fifth in the Group 1 Prince of Wales at Ascot in June.

Other leading European prospects include Tarfasha, fourth in the prestigious Prix de L’Opera at Longchamp on Oct. 5; Just The Judge, a British filly who shipped to win the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor at Woodbine on Sunday; and Secret Gesture, on the board in all four races this year and third last out in the Grade 1 Prix Jean Romanet in France on Aug. 24.

America’s two best hopes reside in the same barn – that of trainer Chad Brown.

The Brown-trained Stephanie’s Kitten, the winner of the Grade 1 Flower Bowl and the runner-up in the Beverly D. and Diana this summer, is widely considered the top turf filly in America going 1 1/4 miles, the distance of the Filly and Mare Turf.

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Brown’s other pre-entry, Dayatthespa, is the top female turf miler in the country, though she is untested at 1 1/4 miles. She has never raced beyond 1 1/8 miles, though she has won both of her races at that distance, including in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup two years ago.

Dayatthespa was one of numerous fillies who also were pre-entered in other Breeders’ Cup races, though her connections noted the Filly and Mare Turf as their first preference and the Mile as their second preference.

Sometimes the connections of runners will alter course to run in races listed as their second preference, though most stick to their initial preferences.

In the case of Dayatthespa, “I’d say she is 99.9 percent to run in the Filly and Mare Turf,” said Pete Bradley, who owns her in partnership.

With the field limited to 14 in the Filly and Mare Turf, three fillies are alternates and need others to be withdrawn or enter other Breeders’ Cup races in order to compete, but if all the connections of cross-entered horses stick to their first preferences, they will gain entry to the field.

The three horses on the alternate list as of pre-entry time are Americans Irish Mission, Rusty Slipper, and Stormy Lucy.

Filly and Mare Turf pre-entries L’Amour de Ma Vie, Chicquita, and Veda had other races designated as their first preferences – the Distaff, Turf, and Mile, respectively.