Nest, Malathaat drill a half-mile for Breeders' Cup Distaff
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LEXINGTON, Ky. — In a tantalizing look ahead to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, stablemates Malathaat and Nest, the early favorites for the Nov. 5 race at Keeneland, breezed in company over the host track Friday morning.
Daily Racing Form clocker Mike Welsch caught the two going their half-mile in 48.52 seconds in what will be the penultimate work for both for their upcoming first meeting in the afternoon.
“I had a little bit of anxiousness breezing the two of them together,” trainer Todd Pletcher admitted. “But they’re pointing, obviously, for the same race, and they’re on the same schedule -- they both ran 12 days ago. And they’re both very intelligent fillies that you can kind of do whatever you want with.”
Malathaat, last year’s Eclipse Award champion 3-year-old filly, and Nest, the frontrunner for that award this year, stepped onto the track at 7:30 a.m., following the first renovation break. With Nest and exercise rider Nora McCormack accompanied by a pony, the two backed up and then jogged around the clubhouse turn, at which point Malathaat, under Amelia Green, picked up a rolling canter. Nest left the pony several seconds later and closed the gap on her stablemate down the backstretch, with the two coming to the pole and around the far turn together, with the opening quarter in 24.42 seconds. With neither rider pushing for much down the lane, Malathaat kept her head in front to the wire. Welsch caught the duo galloping out five furlongs in 1:01.08 and six furlongs in 1:13.94.
“They went terrific,” Pletcher said. “I was expecting them to breeze well, they had a really good week leading into it, and I couldn’t be more happy with the way they went.”
Malathaat, who races for Shadwell, comes in to the Distaff off two consecutive Grade 1 wins, including the Spinster at Keeneland last time out. It was her fifth career Grade 1 win and second at Keeneland, as she took the 2021 Ashland Stakes prior to winning the Kentucky Oaks.
Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Mike Repole’s Nest won this year’s Ashland before finishing second in the Kentucky Oaks and Belmont Stakes. Since then, she has ripped off consecutive daylight victories in the Coaching Club American Oaks, Alabama, and Beldame, the latter against older females.
A busy morning for Pletcher continued as he worked a pair of Breeders’ Cup Classic candidates later in the morning, following the second renovation break. Multiple Grade 1 winner Life Is Good, with Green in the saddle, went a solo five furlongs in 1:00.42 on Welsch’s watch. Keeneland credited him with the second-fastest of 30 works at the distance on a seasonable morning.
The 2021 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner, who is among the choices for this year’s Classic behind the unbeaten Flightline, galloped out in 1:13.25 and the mile in 1:40.28.
“Super,” Pletcher said. “Pretty much what we have come to expect from him. He just does everything so effortlessly. He doesn’t look like he is doing anything, but you look at your watch and he comes home in 23 and change.”
Grade 1 winner Happy Saver, second to Life Is Good in the Grade 1 Whitney this summer but most recently fourth in the Grade 2 Lukas Classic, went a half-mile in company with Never Change, going in 48.48 and galloping out in 1:01.29. Happy Saver, on the outside of his maiden claiming-winning stablemate, worked in blinkers, which would be an equipment change if he sports them at the Breeders’ Cup.
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