Uni can make $100K supplement look smart in Breeders' Cup Mile

ARCADIA, Calif. – Three-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown never has won the Breeders’ Cup Mile. The several owners of Uni bet $100,000 that he can this year.

It’s not a straight-up wager, and Uni can make back the money just by finishing fourth, but Uni, not an original Breeders’ Cup nominee, was made eligible to the Mile with a $100,000 supplemental nomination fee in early October.

Uni made that a comfortable call turning in one of North America’s best one-mile grass performances this year in the First Lady Stakes on Oct. 5 at Keeneland. Uni’s acceleration into a strong pace that day was electric, and with an assist from a fast-playing grass course, Uni ran a mile in a course-record 1:32.87.

“When she’s on her game, her turn of foot is second to none,” Brown said Tuesday morning at Santa Anita.

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With racing luck and another peak performance, Uni can prove best of 14 in the $2 million Mile, which is carded as race 9 and has Caribou Club as an also-eligible. The race divides seven and seven among entrants based in North America and overseas. Aidan O’Brien has the shortest-priced European entrant, Circus Maximus, and like Brown, O’Brien never has won the Mile, going winless from 18 runners, though four of them finished second.

While none of Brown’s dozen Breeders’ Cup wins have come in the Mile, he didn’t run a horse in the race until 2018, when Analyze It finished third and Almanaar was 10th. Uni, an English-bred imported from France during her 3-year-old season, developed late and only hit full stride late in her 4-year-old season last year. Her spectacular win last Dec. 2 at Del Mar in the Grade 1 Matriarch came with a 10th-to-first move in the last furlong, and Uni has found a perfect partner in jockey Joel Rosario. Brown wonders how much Uni liked the Saratoga course where she finished third in the Fourstardave in August, but also has in the back of his head the possibility of regression following her blistering First Lady.

“You think about a bounce, but she’s been training so amazing,” Brown said.

While Brown and O’Brien have gone zero-for-the-Mile, trainer Mark Casse has bagged two of the last four, with the filly Tepin in 2015 and World Approval in 2017. Casse’s hope this year is another filly, Got Stormy, who was Uni’s boss when she won the Fourstardave, her signature victory this season. Casse believes Got Stormy might have felt the effect of that career-best effort when she finished second as the favorite in the Woodbine Mile. He also thinks a fast pace and quick-playing turf course, likely circumstances Saturday in the Mile, will suit Got Stormy, who has trained with verve on dirt here this week.

Circus Maximusm nipped the good miler Romanised in the Group 1 Prix du Moulin, but not before badly drifting left through the final furlong, impeding Romanised’s finish and narrowly averting disqualification. Circus Maximus was treated like a longer-distance horse earlier this year, but has hit his highest points in one-mile races, winning the St. James’s Palace for 3-year-olds in June along with the Prix du Moulin. Circus Maximus has tactical speed and should leave post 9 gunning for early position.

That won’t be the case with English import Space Traveller, a pure hold-up horse who will sit near the back and make one late run. Space Traveller, another 3-year-old, has not won a Group 1 race, but improved considerably in his last couple starts, loves firm turf, and will be a long price.

Hey Gaman also lacks a Group 1 win, but two recent subpar performances can be attributed to soft turf, and his top form this year could earn a high placing. Frankie Dettori rides Hey Gaman, who prefers to race on or near the lead and must break alertly from post 13.

Lord Glitters captured the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Win and You’re In Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot in June, but lacks any sort of speed and could struggle to keep up in a fast-paced mile. His David O’Meara-trained stablemate Suedois was fourth in the 2017 BC Mile, and though he is 8 now showed spark finishing a close third despite a poor draw in the Shadwell Mile on Oct. 5 at Keeneland. Still, he’s probably not up to more than something like a fourth-place finish, and even that seems ambitious for the other European, Trais Fluors.

Got Stormy was beaten at Woodbine by 44-1 shot El Tormenta, whose baseline performance is higher than his odds for that race. El Tormenta suffered through bad trip after bad trip this season before winning the Woodbine Mile, and trainer Gail Cox raved over his two works for the Breeders’ Cup. El Tormenta makes his first two-turn start Saturday.

“I think he’s really going to like it,” Cox said.

Bowies Hero won the Shadwell under a fine ride from Flavien Prat, and though trainer Phil d’Amato said Bowies Hero has thrived at Santa Anita between the Shadwell and the Mile, Prat will need to work a near-miracle from post 14.

Lucullan has a much better draw in post 2 and could worm his way into exotic wagers at a long price. He drifted sharply right late in the Woodbine Mile and was disqualified from third to fourth, but his Knickerbocker win three weeks ago was solid.

Completing the field are True Valour, the City of Hope Mile winner; Bolo, the Shoemaker Mile winner; and Without Parole.