Mile: French mare Esoterique major threat for Fabre

Solow, the France-based gelding who is Europe’s leading miler, is definitely not coming for the Breeders’ Cup Mile, but the French still should have a major say in the race.

The 2014 Mile winner, Karakontie, based in France with trainer Jonathan Pease, is on course for another Mile start, and earlier this week, trainer Andre Fabre confirmed that he intends to run the mare Esoterique at Keeneland.

Esoterique as of Wednesday had not been officially taken out of the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, the one-mile fixture Saturday at Ascot, but Fabre said the mare would skip that race in favor of the BC Mile.

Fabre trains two more milers who were considered possible BC Mile runners, but he said Territories, expected to start Saturday in the QE II, is not coming to Keeneland, and that Prix de la Foret winner Make Believe only had the Mile as “an option.” The 3-year-old Make Believe, racing Oct. 4 for the first time since Royal Ascot in June, could have a Hong Kong trip in December on his agenda or get the rest of the season off.

Esoterique was kept in training as a 5-year-old this season by owner Edouard de Rothschild, and traditionally, that is a long time to race a well-bred mare who nearly won the French 1000 Guineas at age 3 and was a Group 1 winner at 4.

“It’s a new fashion,” Fabre said of the decision to race Esoterique at 5, and the mare has put together the best season of her career, winning two Group 1 races, the Sun Chariot and the Jacques Les Marois, and finishing second in two others, the Maurice de Gheest and the Queen Anne. The de Gheest was only a prep for the Marois, while in the Queen Anne, Esoterique beat all save Solow.

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“Maybe she’s not better this year but easier to train and much stronger and sounder,” said Fabre.

Fabre has won four Breeders’ Cup races – the 1990 Turf with In the Wings, the 1993 Classic with Arcangues, the 2001 Filly and Mare Turf with Banks Hill, and the 2005 Turf with Shirocco – but has yet to win the Mile, though his eight starters in the race have managed a second and a third. Esoterique could be his best chance yet, and she may well be favored in what is shaping up as a full field.

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As for Solow, trainer Freddie Head confirmed Wednesday that the gelding would not travel to Keeneland for the Mile, a race Head has won five times, twice as the jockey of Miesque and three times as the trainer of Goldikova.

“I think Keeneland is quite a sharp track, and I don’t think it would suit him too much. We’re going to give him a break after [the QE II] and get him ready for Dubai next year,” said Head.

Despite coming just two weeks before the Breeders’ Cup, the QE II often produces Mile runners and could do so again this year, while all the North American stakes linked to the Mile have now been run. Like last year, when more than 20 horses were pre-entered, an oversubscribed field is expected when Mile pre-entries close Monday.