Foreign youngsters look like they'll have a say in Friday Breeders' Cup races
DEL MAR, Calif. – Things went well, not spectacularly, for European 2-year-olds at the previous Del Mar Breeders’ Cup in 2017.
Now, the 2-year-old races all come Friday, but then they were spread between Friday and Saturday, and the Juvenile Turf Sprint didn’t yet exist.
Mendelssohn, trained by Aidan O’Brien, won the Juvenile Turf but the other Euros were fifth, sixth, ninth, 10th, and 11th. In the Juvenile Fillies Turf, overseas runners managed only third, seventh, eighth, 11th, 13th, and 14th, that last-place finisher the O’Brien-trained favorite, Happily.
That’s enough low placings to raise an eyebrow, though September might have won the fillies race with better luck and Masar, who was sixth in the Juvenile Turf, was traveling well when William Buick lost his iron around the far turn.
That was then. Now, we have a bunch of international runners to consider for Breeders’ Cup Friday 2021.
Juvenile Turf
Five Euros are in the Juvenile Turf, which overseas horses have won eight times in the race’s 14-year history, and the leading pair bookends this 14-runner grass mile, with Modern Games drawn in post 1 and tepid 4-1 morning-line favorite Dubawi Legend in post 14.
That’s obviously a very tough post for Dubawi Legend with a short run to the first turn in this one-mile contest, but Dubawi Legend does have speed to get position, though he will have to be used out of the gate, not ideal. The speed, his connections believe, is not merely soft European speed but real early pace to lead the Juvenile Turf or at least race very close to the front.
James Doyle initially took a hold of Dubawi Legend in his most recent start, the seven-furlong, straight-course Group 1 Dewhurst, but eventually let him roll to the lead and turn a slow early tempo into a decent middle one. Dubawi Legend dug in when challenged by favored Native Trail, eventually succumbing through Newmarket’s uphill finish while clearly second.
Native Trail, trained by Charlie Appleby for Godolphin, rates as Europe’s best juvenile and the Dewhurst likely was the strongest 2-year-old race of the season. Dubawi Legend raced in the Dewhurst following a 52-day break from his disappointing third-place finish as favorite in the Group 3 Acomb at York.
Published reports quoted trainer Hugo Palmer saying Dubawi Legend’s flat Acomb run led to him being endoscopically examined at the time of entry for his next intended start – the scope came back dirty, the implication being Dubawi Legend had an Acomb excuse. None had been required for his debut at Doncaster, where he so sharply won a maiden race that bookmakers priced him as third choice for next year’s 2000 Guineas. He’s a genuine horse whose stride rhythm has increased since his debut, and on pedigree he should get one mile.
To an American audience, Albahr is the more recognizable of two Godolphin-owned, Appleby-trained colts since he convincingly won the Summer Stakes at Woodbine. But their other one, Modern Games, draws leading stable rider William Buick and has been favored with the British bookies, quite possibly for good reason.
Modern Games has raced down straight courses his last four starts but holding his debut fifth going around a bend at Haydock Park against him might prove imprudent. He comfortably handled the only horse to beat him in his last four races, Cresta, in the Group 3 Somerville Stakes, another straight seven-furlong Newmarket contest, where Modern Games legitimately impressed. Racing over good, quick ground, Modern Games finished powerfully drawing away from favored Trident, who had been second to top 2-year-old sprinter Perfect Power in the Group 1 Prix Morny.
Albahr easily won the Summer, where Grafton Street, a maiden at the time, finished second. Back home, Albahr had won three straight but did so while kept in company far below the top level. His affinity for left-handed racing likely played a part in Godolphin trying him in North America.
Glounthaune comes from the yard of four-time Juvenile Turf-winning trainer Aidan O’Brien but does not seem nearly as talented as Mendelssohn, who won the 2017 Juvenile Turf over the course for O’Brien. Glounthaune stumbled significantly at the start of the Dewhurst and made no real progress while well beaten, returning in a Group 3 of little consequence going left-handed at Leopardstown, eking out a win. The fourth-place horse, who came back to perform modestly on Oct. 23, was badly blocked the final furlong and might have won had he gotten out earlier.
Great Max ran into a small amount of trouble after racing just behind the leaders in the Group 1 National Stakes but thereafter came up empty facing the likes of Native Trail and another powerhouse 2-year-old, Point Lonsdale.
Juvenile Fillies Turf
Hello You got the Win and You’re In by virtue of her Sept. 24 victory in the Group 2 Rockfel Stakes, run at a straight seven furlongs over a good-to-firm and very quick course. But Mise En Scene looks best among this group of overseas shippers trying to become the first foreign Juvenile Fillies Turf winner since Chriselliam in 2013 – though drawing post 13, not good at all, takes off some of her shine.
Mise En Scene won her debut going left-handed at Haydock, blitzing her fifth 200 meters in 11.16, nearly a half-second faster than any of her five rivals, winning by four lengths. Second out, going right-handed at Goodwood, Mise En Scene had to track down Daneh, who had opened a lead of a couple lengths with a furlong to run before Mise En Scene came to get her. Hello You was fourth here, passed on the line for third after encountering just a speck of trouble a quarter-mile out.
Hello You went for the Rockfel, which she essentially won with a big move between the three-eighths and eighth markers, but Mise En Scene tried a tougher spot, the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile, her first start down a straight course. She looked a little lost early, falling farther behind than in her first two starts and having to await room midway through, and as the eventual winner, the very talented Inspiral, made her move for the lead, Mise En Scene went slightly flat. She then found her best stride through the uphill finish and laid down a 24.83-second final 400 meters, matching Inspiral for the field’s fastest closing fraction.
Cachet, who had been second in the Rockfel, barely held off Mise En Scene for third, the latter running the stronger race even with the lower placing.
Malavath has only sprinted six furlongs down straight courses so far. Malavath might be the slightly better filly coming into this start, but is by Mehmas, whose offspring’s average winning distance is only 6 1/2 furlongs.
Juvenile Turf Sprint
We find five overseas shippers, from England and Ireland, in the main body of the Juvenile Turf Sprint after seven were pre-entered – Quick Suzy having been taken out of the race after spiking a temperature following her trip to Del Mar from England and Thunder Love failing to be selected into the field.
Provided the five actually start, that makes 20 European participants in the four renewals of the Juvenile Turf. So far, the overseas record stands at a somewhat dismal 15-0-0-2.
The first three Juvenile Turf Sprints have been won wire to wire by fast American horses, two of them trained by Wesley Ward. In 2018, when the Todd Pletcher-trained Bulletin won the race at Churchill Downs, So Perfect, trained by Aidan O’Brien, closed from eighth to finish a distant third. In 2020 at Keeneland, Ubettabelieveit rallied from 11th to get third for trainer Nigel Tinkler. At Santa Anita in 2019 the Euros finished fifth, seventh, eighth, 10th, 11th, and 12th. Ugh.
So Perfect, a filly, came out of the Cheveley Park Stakes, a race that none of the 2021 horses contested, while Ubettabelieveit had won the Flying Childers Stakes in his previous start. Armor finished second in the 2021 Flying Childers and on paper has as good a chance as any of these to make an impact.
Armor, a colt by No Nay Never, already has started six times and began his season in April, so this is pretty deep into the autumn for him to be undertaking a long ship to make one last start. Fifth of 27 in June in the Windsor Castle at Royal Ascot, Armor closed the gap on Europe’s best 2-year-old sprinter, Perfect Power, from 2 1/2 lengths in the Prix Morny to just three-quarters of a length Sept. 25 in the Middle Park at Newmarket.
Both those races were contested over six furlongs down a straight course with Armor, who has never has raced around a turn, racing from the back part of the field. The colt’s two wins, as well as his Flying Childers, came over five furlongs with trips closer to the pace. In the Flying Childers, run at a modest tempo, he had the lead in the late stages but was run down by a solid if unspectacular deep closer name Caturra.
Armor’s trainer, Richard Hannon Jr., has to be mentioned. Hannon and Richard Hannon Sr., now retired, have found plenty of success in England and Ireland. But their horses, dating to the elder’s first try in 1991, have struggled in North America, compiling a combined record of 24-0-1-2.
Go Bears Go debuted about two weeks after Armor and also has raced six times, including a fourth, beaten a neck by Armor, in the Middle Park. Connections tried Go Bears Go over a testing seven furlongs at Newmarket in the Group 1 Dewhurst, and after setting the pace Go Bears Go was the first one beaten in that race, fading to seventh. He has shown plenty of Euro speed but likely won’t be able to keep up with the quickest Americans.
The filly Vertiginous goes up in class but has a lot of speed, won well in her most recent race, and is one of the two horses with experience around a turn. Unfortunately, racing over the all-weather track at Kempton Park in August, she was defeated at odds-on because she ran the turn so poorly.
Hierarchy has turned right- and left-handed on two synthetic tracks and handled those bends, no issue. He has speed and used it after breaking slowly in the Mill Reef, a straight six furlongs at Newbury, but while that race has a Group 2 designation, the participants this year – and in the last couple years – were not nearly the class of horses coming out of races like the Middle Park.
Twilight Jet has managed to get in a remarkable 10 starts this year – equally remarkable is the fact he comes off his two best races. He went too fast in the Middle Park after breaking a touch slow and the uphill finish of that six-furlong contest caught up with him. The competition was far softer last out in the Cornwallis Stakes, where Twilight Jet dominated as connections cut him back to five furlongs.
If he breaks well from post 1, he could get a good pocket trip behind the pacesetter, but there’s also a decent chance the colt will get claustrophobic in a spot like that and pull for his head since he’s raced too keenly at times.
Juvenile
Jasper Great was a visually impressive winner, that we can say, but his lone start came in a nine-furlong, two-turn, right-handed dirt race restricted to unraced horses. An American-bred son of Arrogate, Jasper Great went right to the lead and drew off under hand urging through the homestretch, but the jump in class to the BC Juvenile is gigantic. Three-year-old Japanese dirt horses have at times raced creditably in the Triple Crown, but something like a fourth-place finish from this colt surely would be considered a success.