Vale Dori to get freshening, skip Breeders' Cup

ARCADIA, Calif. – Although she emerged as one of the country’s leading older females this season, the 2017 Breeders’ Cup is off the table for Vale Dori.

Trainer Bob Baffert confirmed Sunday that Vale Dori will be freshened for the winter meet at Santa Anita. She will not run this year in the BC Distaff or Filly and Mare Sprint.

“She needs a break. She’s not showing any energy,” Baffert said. “She ran hard all year, and I think she’s sort of tailing on me.”

Vale Dori won five consecutive graded stakes, including the Grade 1 Santa Margarita in March at Santa Anita. But after finishing second by a neck in two hard-fought battles with Stellar Wind in June and July, Vale Dori was slow to come back around.

Vale Dori posted four intermittent workouts following her most recent start July 30 in the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch at Del Mar. This week, Baffert opted to pull the plug on her campaign.

“We’re going to freshen her up and just wait for the big meet here,” Baffert said Sunday at Santa Anita. Baffert shipped Vale Dori to Los Alamitos this week. “She’s just chilling. We’ll let her chill and give her a couple months off,” he said.

Vale Dori, a 5-year-old bred in Argentina and owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa al Maktoum, has won nine races and $1,134,943 from 16 starts while campaigning internationally.

Vale Dori began her career in Argentina in 2015, winning two of three, including a Group 1. Her next stop was Meydan in Dubai, where in the spring of 2016 her best finish was a runner-up effort in a Group 3 against fillies. She followed with a fourth against males in the Group 2 UAE Derby.

Vale Dori subsequently was sent to Baffert in California, and in late 2016, she went on a tear. Vale Dori won six straight prior to finishing second twice to Stellar Wind. In addition to the Santa Margarita, Vale Dori won three Grade 2 races and a Grade 3.

Baffert still has two candidates for the BC Distaff – Kentucky Oaks winner Abel Tasman and Grade 1-placed Faithfully.

Stellar Wind, the current Distaff favorite, worked six furlongs in thick fog Sunday morning at 6:30. According to exercise rider Jose Contreras and trainer John Sadler, Stellar Wind went in 1:14 over a track that produced slow workout times.

Contreras, who wears a stopwatch on his wrist, broke off behind a workmate, and Stellar Wind outfinished that one by “two or three lengths” at the wire, according to Sadler. Stellar Wind will have three more workouts leading to the BC Distaff on Nov. 3.

:: Breeders’ Cup Challenge: Results, replays, charts, and more

:: Breeders' Cup PP packages: Get PPs, betting strategies, DRF+ Pro access, and more