One Timer will get a break and skip Breeders' Cup

One Timer, a 4 1/4-length winner of the $525,750 Franklin-Simpson Stakes on Sept. 10 at Kentucky Downs, is getting a 45-day break in Florida and won’t contest the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, trainer Larry Rivelli said earlier this week.

One Timer was beaten only two lengths when ninth last fall in the BC Juvenile Turf Sprint at Del Mar, but Rivelli said the 3-year-old is better at distances longer than the BC Turf Sprint’s 5 1/2 furlongs, and Rivelli isn’t eager to tackle the likes of Golden Pal in the Breeders’ Cup.

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Rivelli does have a pair of 2-year-olds stabled at Hawthorne he hopes prove Breeders’ Cup-worthy. The 2-year-old filly Back to Ohio, a winner in all three of her starts (she finished second but was placed first via disqualification in her second race) is entered in Monday’s Presque Isle Debutante but could start instead in a two-turn allowance race at Keeneland next week.

Rivelli said he is sending Two Phil’s to Keeneland for the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity and will aim for the BC Juvenile if the colt runs competitively in the 1 1/16-mile race. Two Phil’s was an easy second-start maiden winner in a Colonial Downs sprint before cruising to an easy score in the Shakopee Juvenile, a six-furlong stakes Sept. 17 at Canterbury Park.

“We’ve been waiting to run him two turns,” Rivelli said. “That’s not even a concern. It’s just if he’s good enough.”

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