Nine confirmed for Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies

Alandra, third in the Alcibiades at Keeneland, and Frank’s Rockette, runner-up in the Frizette at Belmont, both will bypass the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, which is increasingly looking as though it will have one of its smallest fields in the past two decades.

As of Wednesday, only nine runners were confirmed as starters for the Nov. 1 Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita, which is headed by Chandelier winner Bast, along with Alcibiades winner British Idiom and Frizette winner Wicked Whisper. The Juvenile Fillies has had at least 10 runners in 16 of its last 17 editions, the lone time falling below that threshold being in 2012, also at Santa Anita, when Beholder beat seven rivals to secure the first of the four Eclipse Awards she earned during her magnificent career.

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Alandra will not ship west, trainer Shug McGaughey said, though he did leave open the possibility that she could make one more start before year’s end. Frank’s Rockette is “going to get a little freshening, and we’ll bring her back next year,” trainer Bill Mott said Wednesday.

Gone Glimmering and His Glory, who had been slight possibilities for the race, are now officially out, with trainer Tom Amoss informing Wednesday that “they will take a more conservative approach.”

Bast worked five furlongs in 1:01.20 on Wednesday morning at Santa Anita. She will have two more works prior to the race.

Still to be determined is who the ascendant Abel Cedillo will ride for trainer Doug O’Neill. Cedillo, the leading rider at Santa Anita’s fall meeting, is the regular rider of both of O’Neill’s candidates, Pocahontas winner Lazy Daisy and Chandelier runner-up Comical. O’Neill has a terrific working relationship with Cedillo’s agent, Tom Knust, and said there was no rush to make a decision, as both fillies still have works to get in.

Final entries for the Juvenile Fillies are due Oct. 28, when posts are drawn for all 14 Breeders’ Cup races. Pre-entries are due Monday and officially announced Oct. 23.