Mullikin highlights 11-horse Cigar Mile field

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - When determining in which Breeders’ Cup race to run, the connections of Mullikin chose to cut the Grade 1 winner back to the six furlongs of the Sprint rather than stretch out to the Dirt Mile which, at Del Mar, was contested around two turns.

Coming off four straight victories, including a Grade 1 win in the seven-furlong Forego at Saratoga in August, Mullikin was sent off the 3-1 favorite in the $2 million Sprint. He finished third, three lengths behind Straight No Chaser.

“If the Breeders’ Cup Mile would have been a one-turn mile, I would have been in the mile race off of the Forego,” trainer Rodolphe Brisset said. “You can’t go first time two turns in the Breeders’ Cup. If you run a bad race you look like an idiot.”

On Saturday, Mullikin will get his first chance to stretch out to a mile, in this case a one-turn mile, in the Grade 2, $500,000 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct. Mullikin was one of 11 horses entered Sunday for Saturday’s Cigar Mile, a field that includes Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile runner-up Post Time, Grade 1 winners Book’em Danno and Locked, and Senor Buscador, the runner-up in last year’s Cigar Mile and winner of this year’s $20 million Saudi Cup.

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Brisset said he’s been thinking about running Mullikin a mile for a long time, but was looking for the best opportunity. Aside from the fact the Cigar Mile was downgraded from a Grade 1 to a Grade 2 beginning in 2023, this is that opportunity.

“First of all, he liked the track there, he won there in July,” said Brisset, referring to Mullikin’s 1 1/2-length victory in the Grade 2 John Nerud. “And, if he does go a mile that will open some options. … It’s something I and Elliott felt like it’s time to try.”

Brisset was referring to Elliott Walden, president and CEO of racing operations for WinStar Farm, which co-owns Mullikin along with Siena Farm.

Looking back at the BC Sprint, Brisset felt Mullikin ran a solid enough race, perhaps resenting some early kickback that caused him to be eighth of 11 a half-mile into the race.

“When he got the kickback, he got a little bit off the bridle and maybe didn’t take Flavien [Prat] the way we’ve been seeing him traveling the whole year and it may have cost him a length or two there,” Brisset said. “He came with his run. If you look at his gallop out, he galloped out really strong.”

Mullikin has worked twice since the Breeders’ Cup, including a six-furlong move in 1:13.80 at Keeneland last Friday.

The Cigar Mile field, from the rail out, is: Book’em Danno, Nelson Avenue, Repo Rocks, Vinsanity, Mullikin, Law Professor, Locked, Pipeline, Senor Buscador, Coastal Mission and Post Time.

Poster tries dirt in Remsen

One week after watching First Resort successfully go turf to dirt to win the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs, trainer Eoin Harty and Godolphin Racing will try a similar move when they run Poster in Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct.

Unlike First Resort, who had a win and a second in two prior dirt starts before his fourth in the Grade 1 Summer on turf at Woodbine, Poster has yet to run on dirt. Poster, a son of Munnings, is 2 for 2, with both wins coming in one-mile turf races.

“It was a good spot to find out whether he ran dirt or not,” Harty said of the Remsen. “It’s not like you’re going to find a two-other-than anywhere for a 2-year-old. This is the right race at the right time.”

Poster is out of the Tapit mare Pin Up, who is a half-sister to 2006 champion 3-year-old Bernardini, who won the Preakness, Jim Dandy and Jockey Club Gold Cup, all on dirt.

Of Poster, Harty said, “he’s built like a dirt horse. He’s a big colt. He wouldn’t be out of place in [Bob] Baffert’s barn.”

The Remsen field, from the rail out, is: Tux, Aviator Gui, Poster, Studlydoright, Keewaydin, Surfside Moon and Gun Trader.

Ballerina d’Oro to try dirt in Demoiselle

In sticking with the turf-to-dirt theme, trainer Chad Brown entered Ballerina d’Oro in Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Demoiselle Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at 1 1/8 miles.

Ballerina d’Oro, a daughter of Medaglia d’Oro, has made all three of her starts on turf, winning her maiden race at Kentucky Downs in between a maiden defeat at Saratoga and an eighth-place finish in the Grade 2 Jessamine Stakes at Keeneland.

Brown said the way Ballerina d’Oro has trained in the mornings on the dirt was the impetus to make the surface switch at this time

“I’m excited to see what she can do going a mile and an eighth on dirt based on her gallop outs,” Brown said.

Brown is also adding blinkers to Ballerina d’Oro’s equipment based on the spotty way she ran in the Jessamine. He was going to run Ballerina d’Oro in blinkers in the Tepin stakes on turf on Nov. 17 had he opted to remain on turf.

Favoritism in the Demoiselle is likely to fall on Muhimma, a daughter of Munnings, who has won each of her two starts by a combined 13 lengths. Muhimma, owned by Shadwell Stable, is out of the dam Princesa Carolina, who had all of her success on turf including a victory in the Dueling Grounds Oaks.

The Demoiselle field, from the rail out, is: Muhimma, Liam in the Dust, Fortuna Mia, Carmen’s Candy Jar, Michelle, Bless the Broken, Five a Side, Beauty Reigns, Tip Line, Ballerina d’Oro.

Comparative returns in Go for Wand

Comparative began her 4-year-old season with a victory in a stakes at Aqueduct. She will try to conclude her 4-year-old campaign in similar fashion when she returns from an eight-month layoff in Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Go for Wand.

Comparative, a Godolphin-owned, Brad Cox-trained 4-year-old daughter of Street Sense, followed her victory in the Ladies Stakes here in January with another in the Grade 3 Bayakoa at Oaklawn in February. She then went off form, finishing seventh in the Grade 2 Azeri and a well-beaten fourth in the Top Flight Invitational at Aqueduct in April. She went to the sidelines after that. Last November, Comparative won a second-level allowance going a one-turn mile at Aqueduct off a six-month layoff.

Another Aqueduct stakes winner returning from a layoff in the Go for Wand is Tizzy in the Sky, who won the aforementioned Top Flight Invitational by nine lengths. In her subsequent start, she finished last of six in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps at Saratoga in June before getting a freshening.

The Go for Wand field, from the rail out, is: Tizzy in the Sky, Stonewall Star, Occult, Movie Moxy, Comparative, Rachel’s Rock, Ain’t Broke, Shidabhuti.

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