For Retro, allowance turf mile is consolation game

DEL MAR, Calif. – Who knows how Retro would have fared in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Friday?

“I thought she would have had a heck of a chance in the Breeders’ Cup,” trainer Richard Mandella said.

She will have to wait for next year. Retro, a debut winner and third in a stakes second time out, did not draw in from the Breeders’ Cup also-eligible list and instead runs Sunday in a $53,000 first-level allowance. The purse is less than that of the Breeders’ Cup. So are her odds.

“You would think she would have a better chance in the allowance,” Mandella acknowledged.

Retro, a 20-1 morning-line outsider in the Breeders’ Cup, is the 9-5 morning-line favorite Sunday in the first of two allowance races that will suffice as the Sunday features. The $75,000 Fast Parade Stakes, a turf sprint scheduled for Sunday, drew only three entrants and was rescheduled for Nov. 10.

The top races Sunday are a pair of one-mile turf races. Retro faces Medaglia Gold and Tesora in race 4, an allowance for 2-year-old fillies. Jeremy’s Legacy is favored in race 8, a second-level allowance for fillies and mares.

Mandella entered front-runners in two Breeders’ Cup races – Paradise Woods was expected to set the pace Friday in the Distaff, and Avenge was a potential pacesetter Saturday in the Filly and Mare Turf. Retro’s late-running style is the opposite of her stablemates’.

Retro won her career debut at Del Mar in September, followed by a third-place finish in a stakes won by Juvenile Fillies Turf entrant Fatale Bere. Mandella speculated that Retro’s inexperience caught up with her second time out.

“Just greenness,” he said. “A lot of times with fillies, they show greenness the second time. She got caught up with all the traffic and just got running the last 50 yards.”

Retro ran well and missed by 1 1/2 lengths. On Sunday, she drops in class, retains jockey Flavien Prat, and appears to be one of the most probable winners on the card even while facing two legitimate rivals.

Medaglia Gold, trained by Cliff Sise, ran well last out in the stakes race that Retro exits. Medaglia Gold pressed a fast pace, made the lead at the quarter pole, and was swallowed by closers from the back of the pack. Medaglia Gold was the only front-runner to stick around. She finished fifth.

Kent Desormeaux takes over on Medaglia Gold. Joel Rosario is named to ride Tesora, an impressive debut winner at Gulfstream Park for trainer Jonathan Thomas.

In race 8, Jeremy’s Legacy is favored while returning to her favorite course. Both career wins were at Del Mar. Doug O’Neill trains the filly, who would be tough to beat if she runs back to her first-level allowance win this past summer.

Her rivals include Moonless Sky and Cordiality.