El Tormenta flying under Breeders' Cup Mile radar, just as he did in the Woodbine Mile

Got Stormy is an exciting candidate for the Breeders’ Cup Mile. She’s a filly, which is always cool, and beat Grade 1 males in the Fourstardave Stakes at Saratoga. She lays back and makes one tremendous run, and her trainer, Mark Casse, already had a BC Mile win with a female, Tepin. And in her most recent start, the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile . . . Got Stormy lost.

Yes, it’s easy to get excited about Got Stormy’s candidacy for the Mile, but the horse who beat her at Woodbine, El Tormenta, is equally easy to overlook. He sure was in the Woodbine Mile itself, where El Tormenta went off just shy of 45-1 and beat Got Stormy by a half-length.

“I was surprised at the price,” trainer Gail Cox said. “I thought he was a horse that had a real chance. For whatever reason, he somehow just got overlooked.”

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A Sam-Son Farm homebred, 4-year-old gelding El Tormenta was eligible for a third-level allowance race when he won the Woodbine Mile, but he’d shown quality at age 3 and won the Grade 2 Connaught Cup over seven furlongs on Woodbine turf earlier this year.

“He’s a big, beautiful horse and he really has matured as a 4-year-old,” said Cox, who has saddled three Breeders’ Cup starters, Something Extra in two BC Turf Sprints, and Hard Not to Like in the Juvenile Fillies Turf. Cox pointed out that El Tormenta used to go straight to the front in his races and has learned to settle. “He’s changed his running style,” she said.

Cox has taken it easy with El Tormenta since the Sept. 14 Woodbine Mile. The gelding didn’t work back until Oct. 3 and had his first breeze since then Tuesday morning at Woodbine, going five furlongs on the training track in 1:00.40.

“He’s doing great. He ran back in three weeks in the Mile, and I think he just needs probably three works before the Breeders’ Cup. It’s freezing cold up here, and the horses are feeling really good,” Cox said.

Eurico Rosa da Silva rode El Tormenta in the Woodbine Mile and will retain the mount at Santa Anita, Cox said. There’s no direct flight from the Woodbine area to Los Angeles, so Cox will send El Tormenta to New York on Oct. 27 and put him on a plane to California on Oct. 28. There will be no motorcade when the upset winner of the Woodbine Mile arrives at Santa Anita, but maybe he’s actually there with a chance.

◗ There’s one final race still to be run with potential Mile ramifications, the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on Saturday at Ascot – if it’s to be run then at all. The Ascot course as of midweek was described as somewhere between heavy and absolutely waterlogged, and another period of heavy rain could lead to QIPCO British Champions Day being moved from its scheduled date. Even if the event goes off, the radical conditions could lead some connections to pass the QE II in favor of the BC Mile.

Romanised, winner of the Group 1 Jacques le Marois in August and second by a nose to BC Mile candidate Circus Maximus last out in the Group 1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp, is one such horse. Romanised won’t run in the QE II, trainer Kevin Condon has said, if the course is very soft, and while no one has committed Romanised to the Mile, Breeders’ Cup racing officials continue to list him as a possible starter.

Lord Glitters, an intended QE II starter, also could have designs on the BC Mile, though trainer David O’Meara also is considering Suedois, a close third in the Shadwell Turf Mile, for the race.