Harty will train Fair Maiden up to the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf

In 2001, the 2-year-old filly Tempera won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Belmont Park at 11-1 after a nine-week gap from her third in the Del Mar Debutante.

This year, Eoin Harty, who trained Tempera, is hoping to follow a similar plan with Fair Maiden in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 1. Fair Maiden was third in the Grade 1 Natalma Stakes at Woodbine on Sept. 15. She will not race again until the Breeders’ Cup.

“With fillies on the turf, you can get away with a lot,” Harty said.

Fair Maiden, owned by Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin Racing, was the easy winner of the Catch a Glimpse Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs on turf at Woodbine on Aug. 17 in her stakes debut. Sent off as the 3-5 favorite in the Natalma, Fair Maiden was third early, challenged for the lead in the stretch, and was beaten a neck by winner Abscond.

In the final furlong, Fair Maiden drifted out under jockey Flavien Prat.

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“I probably should have won if she stayed in a straight line,” Harty said. “She was ducking and diving.”

Harty said on Wednesday that he has not finalized a rider for Fair Maiden in the Juvenile Fillies Turf. Monday at Santa Anita, Fair Maiden had her first workout since the Natalma, a half-mile in 49.20 seconds.

Abscond is bound for the Juvenile Fillies Turf, as are Selflessly and Crystalle, the first two finishers of the Grade 2 Miss Grillo Stakes at Belmont Park on Sunday.

So far, Harty said he has not seen any competition that causes concern.

“Watching the fillies on the East Coast, there was nothing there that makes you want to sit up and go in a different direction,” he said.

Daahyeh, trained in England by Roger Varian, earned a fees-paid berth to the Juvenile Fillies Turf with a win in the Group 2 Rockfel Stakes at Newmarket last Friday.

There are four stakes in coming days likely to yield runners – Sunday’s Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris, Sunday’s $100,000 Surfer Girl Stakes at Santa Anita, the Grade 2 Jessamine Stakes at Keeneland next Wednesday, and the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket on Oct. 11.

The Prix Marcel Boussac at a mile has 10 candidates. There are two group stakes winners among the probable starters – Savarin, who won the Group 3 Prix d’Aumale at Longchamp on Sept. 8, and Albigna, who won the Group 2 Airlie Stud Stakes at the Curragh in Ireland in June.

Albigna was later sixth behind Love in the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Curragh on Sept. 15. Love, who earned a fees-paid berth to the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf with that win, is expected to start in the Fillies’ Mile.