Juliet Foxtrot returns in Mint Julep after skipping planned West Coast trip
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Juliet Foxtrot won her only start this year, and it was a Grade 1 at that. The Juddmonte Farms homebred was supposed to run back in another Grade 1 two weekends ago, but the slightest of hiccups precluded that.
Instead, Juliet Foxtrot will return to action Saturday night at her home track of Churchill Downs, as a decisive favorite in the 45th running of the Grade 3, $150,000 Mint Julep, a 1 1/16-mile turf race that drew 11 fillies and mares. It’ll be her first appearance since the British-bred 6-year-old mare went wire to wire in winning the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley on April 10 at Keeneland.
Trainer Brad Cox said Juliet Foxtrot “just wasn’t quite right” when it came time to ship west for the Grade 1 Gamely on May 31 at Santa Anita, “so we called an audible and kept her home. Her bloodwork wasn’t where I wanted it to be. We thought, there’s a lot of Grade 1’s still out there the rest of the year, let’s just stay home and run in the Mint Julep and take things from there.”
The setback was so minor that Juliet Foxtrot remained on a steady work pattern throughout. Her most recent of five works since the Jenny Wiley was a half-mile breeze in 49.20 seconds over the Churchill turf, one that Cox hopes has her set up just right for the Mint Julep, for which the meet’s leading jockey, Tyler Gaffalione, will be back aboard when she breaks from post 2.
A dearth of opposing speed in the Jenny Wiley helped grease the skids for Juliet Foxtrot’s first Grade 1 win, which came as a 17-10 favorite, but it’s worth noting that there are a few early goers drawn into outer posts in the Mint Julep, which could make this assignment a bit trickier, even on this supposed class drop into Grade 3 company. Flash n’ Dance, Crystal Ball, Sister Hanan, and She’sonthewarpath all seem to have enough gate quicks to force Gaffalione to consider other tactics, and it’ll be up to him to determine the proper course of action as the field makes its way through the first turn and onto the backstretch.
As for late threats, there’s Mintd and Hendy Woods, both entered off a sharp allowance win over the local course in their only start at the meet, as well as the British-bred Tuned, a Maryland shipper with very consistent form for trainer Graham Motion. Cox also has a second starter here in Dominga, who turns back from the 1 1/2-mile distance of the April 23 Bewitch at Keeneland.
Dry Saturday weather most likely will permit the Mint Julep to stay on the grass as scheduled, although there should be plenty of give in the ground, owing to considerable rainfall throughout the week; all turf races were moved to the main track for the twilight Thursday card. The daytime high will reach the low 90s, with the temperature gradually dropping as the evening unfolds.
The Mint Julep, inaugurated in 1977 and sponsored by Old Forester since 2015, was held on dirt for its first 10 runnings before moving to the new Churchill turf course in 1987. Former winners include such standouts as Lady Shirl (1992), Megans Bluff (2000-01), Dreaming of Anna (2008), and Dona Bruja (2017). Motion trained the 2020 winner, Secret Message, with John Velazquez up.
This will be the third and last nighttime card of a 38-day spring meet that runs through June 26. First post for an 11-race card is 6 p.m. Eastern, with the Mint Julep (race 9) going under the lights at 10:11 and the 11th race at 11:10. Two allowances (races 6 and 8) are part of the 20-cent Derby City 6 (races 6-11).