Kip Deville looks headed to Hong Kong

Goldikova, the spine-tingling winner of the Breeders' Cup Mile, is headed back to France, presumably to await a 2009 campaign that easily could end with another trip to the BC Mile. And the connections of Kip Deville should be pleased if Goldikova stays half a world away while Kip travels to Hong Kong for the Dec. 14 Hong Kong Mile, a race that as of Monday had been penciled into his agenda.

While no match for Goldikova's instant acceleration, Kip Deville finished a fine second last weekend while trying to win his second straight BC Mile. Monday, trainer Rick Dutrow said plans for a trip to the Far East had been tentatively laid.

"He's going home to New York tomorrow," Dutrow said. "We'll check him out, make sure everything's fine. Right now, I think Hong Kong is on top of the list."

Kip Deville made a fine physical impression leading into the Mile, and he basically ran his race, finishing 2 1/2 lengths in front of third-place Whatsthescript.

"I thought he ran an incredible race," Dutrow said. "We were so happy with him. I think he had a good trip, a good ride, and we were completely satisfied. We understand why we got beat - he got outrun. The filly ran faster."

Kip Deville pretty much got on even terms with Goldikova at about the eighth pole in Saturday's race, but that's where the difference between the two showed. While Kip Deville has a nice turn of foot and finishes his races strongly when he fires, Goldikova had a much flashier run, one that carried her a couple lengths clear of Kip Deville once jockey Olivier Peslier split horses and found a seam through which he sent Goldikova. Her 1 1/4-length score in 1:33.40 looked like Goldikova's career-best performance, and gave rise to the idea that as well as she had run winning Group 1 miles in France, she might be even better in the United States.

"The only thing is she wants speed," said trainer Freddie Head, who became the first person to win a Breeders' Cup race both as jockey and trainer. "She wants to run a mile in 1:33 or 1:34. Here, they sit right off the gallop, and then they go - that's what she wants to do."

Owner-breeders Alain and Gerard Wertheimer left no doubt about whether Goldikova would race again next year. "Absolutely," Alain Wertheimer said in a post-Mile press conference when asked whether Goldikova would start again in 2009. And scary as it might seem, Goldikova could be a better filly next season. She is only 3, and by design, Head gave her a light two-race campaign at age 2, since he felt Goldikova was not precocious and would improve with age.

Kip Deville, on the other hand, is a 5-year-old, and if he could not beat Goldikova on Saturday, he might never do so. But running into faster horses sometimes is part of the game, even for a Grade 1 performer like Kip Deville.

"You give it all you got, and you get a good trip," said Dutrow. "I can live with that every day of my life."