Quick juvenile Rated by Merit passing BC in favor of Affirmed Stakes

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Barring a last-minute change of heart, it appears local 2-year-old sensation Rated by Merit will skip the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile to make his next start in the $200,000 Affirmed Stakes going seven furlongs here on Oct. 19.

Rated by Merit has won his first two career starts by a combined 16 lengths, including the six-furlong Dr. Fager, opening leg of the Florida Sire Series, by 6 1/4 lengths on Sept. 7. The 92 and 93 Beyer Speed Figures the St. Elias Stable homebred earned for those victories are the third- and fifth-highest recorded by any 2-year-old in the U.S. in 2024.

“It’s not etched in stone just yet, but right now it looks like we’re leaning towards keeping him here and pointing towards the seven-furlong stallion race and bypassing the Breeders’ Cup,” trainer Michael Yates said on Friday. “We just feel going in this direction is in the best interest of the horse, the reasoning being to develop the horse the rest of this season. We still have two more of these Florida-bred races to look forward to, and have a nice, sound 3-year-old to run next year.

“Obviously, it’s a very far-sighted plan, but we believe if you start shoving too much on them too quick, it can take a big toll. He’s obviously a very talented horse and we’re really looking forward to his 3-year-old season.”

Rated by Merit has worked just once, a slow half-mile in 52.40 seconds here last Friday, since the Dr. Fager.

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“I gave him a very easy work with the exercise boy last week, but he’s been two-minute-licking and the plan is to give him a real work in the near future, likely this weekend or sometime next week,” Yates noted.

Familiar group in feature

If the field for Sunday’s main event, a $62,000 allowance for 3-year-olds, looks familiar, it should. Four of the seven horses entered to go 1 1/16 miles over the Tapeta track squared off just a month earlier, all finishing within 1 1/4 lengths of each other. The race was won by the class-dropping Prevent.

Prevent, who was returning to the allowance ranks after racing exclusively against stakes company for the bulk of the spring and summer, rallied from just off the pace to register a neck victory going a mile and 70 yards here on Sept. 7. Freedom Principle, the 9-5 favorite that day while also dropping off a steady series of stakes outings, finished just three-quarters of a length back in third followed by Cuban Thunder (fourth, beaten one length) and Pet Mat (fifth by 1 1/4 lengths).

Prevent, who finished third in the Bear’s Den Stakes on the turf five weeks earlier, was a game winner after prompting all the pace before wearing down the front-running longshot Themanupfront at the end. Freedom Principle, a two-time stakes winner on grass earlier in the year, had no real excuse, rallying mildly off a ground-saving trip.

Visually, Cuban Thunder may have been the most impressive of the group, overcoming a slow start and wide trip to finish best of all down the center of the course while never switching off his left lead at any point down the lane.

The three new faces are Private Thoughts, Oishi, and Brawn, the last named the most dangerous of the trio having finished well in front of Prevent when second best in the Bear’s Den.

Soul of an Angel stays local

Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. reported that Soul of an Angel, who earned an automatic all-expenses-paid berth into the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint by virtue of her victory in the Princess Rooney Stakes here on Sept. 21, will remain locally to continue her preparations for the Breeders’ Cup. Joseph’s other confirmed Breeders’ Cup starter, Skippylongstocking, who will compete in either the Classic or Dirt Mile, is currently in New York following his second-place finish last Saturday in the Grade 2 Woodward.

Soul of an Angel turned back to seven furlongs off a steady diet of longer races to register an impressive 3 1/4-length triumph in the Princess Rooney, doing so despite a slow start and after falling far off the early leaders in the run down the backstretch. Soul of an Angel earned national attention this summer when extending the reigning Distaff champion Idiomatic and dropping a head decision in the Grade 3 Molly Pitcher going 1 1/16 miles at Monmouth Park.

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