Six Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint entrants enter off layoffs

Giving racehorses plenty of time between races leading into any major event has become a common practice among American trainers, and so it goes with the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Churchill Downs on Saturday.

Six of the 15 horses entered in the seven-furlong race, including also-eligible Dream Pauline, are entered off layoffs of eight weeks or more, including the two morning-line favorites, Marley’s Freedom (who last raced Aug. 25) and Selcourt (March 24). The others are Dream Pauline (Aug. 2), Finley’sluckycharm (Aug. 25), Mia Mischief (Sept. 2), and Stormy Embrace (Sept. 8).

Opting for more time between races was actually a calculated choice for all of these horses except one: Selcourt, who last winter had emerged as the leading filly-mare sprinter on the West Coast before being sidelined with what trainer John Sadler described as bone bruising.

“She came off a layoff last winter and won all three of her races at Santa Anita with a really good (Ragozin sheets) pattern, very fast numbers,” Sadler said. “If I would’ve had time to get a prep into her for this, sure I would have, but we just didn’t have time. The time she had to be out just didn’t allow it.”

With Selcourt having drawn post 1, Sadler said he expects her to be hustled early by jockey Tyler Baze to prevent her from being trapped on the rail or encountering traffic trouble. “She’ll be fresh, and obviously she’s very fast,” he said.

Selcourt, who is scheduled to sell Sunday at Fasig-Tipton in Lexington, Ky., is among the four horses Sadler brought here from California in trying to earn his first win after 41 Breeders’ Cup defeats.

“I’m just glad I keep having horses good enough to be in the Breeders’ Cup,” he said.