Catch a Glimpse will take advantage of the expenses-paid berth in the Grade 1, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf that she earned by winning the Grade 2 Natalma Stakes at Woodbine on Sept. 12.
Trained by Mark Casse, the Kentucky-bred daughter of City Zip controlled the Win and You’re In, one-mile race on turf right from the start. The 89 Beyer Speed Figure she earned is the highest figure given to any 2-year-old running on grass in North America this year.
West Coast-based horses have won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in seven of the last 13 years, including the last two with Texas Red and New Year’s Day. Though it’s still early, that trend of West Coast domination could very well continue in the $2 million Juvenile at Keeneland on Oct. 31.
:: BREEDERS’ CUP JUVENILE SPONSORED BY ASHFORD COOLMORE: See DRF’s top contenders
If only out of deference to her last two performances in this race – she was the runner-up in 2013 and the winner last year at Santa Anita – Judy the Beauty leads the roll call for the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. After all, she’s the champ until proven otherwise.
“Everything we’ve done since she left the winner’s circle last year at Santa Anita has been with the intention of winning the race again,” said owner and trainer Wesley Ward.
At this early juncture, the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Keeneland on Oct. 31 has the look of a classic East vs. West matchup.
Songbird’s 5 1/4-length romp in the Del Mar Debutante made her the clear leader of the West Coast division. She will be a heavy favorite for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer in the Grade 1 Chandelier at Santa Anita on Saturday.
At this point of the season, the 2-year-old divisions are very much works in progress. The field for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf is no exception, with the most pressing question just over five weeks out being: Which Europeans will show up?
Of the eight winners of the Juvenile Turf since the race was added to the Breeders’ Cup program in 2007, six made their final prior start outside of North America, including the last four. This includes last year’s winner, Hootenanny, who was based in Kentucky for Wesley Ward but campaigned extensively in Europe as a juvenile.
The future-book favorite for the $3 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Keeneland on Oct. 31 is a European-based runner becoming increasingly familiar to American racing fans.
Flintshire, second in the 2014 BC Turf at Santa Anita and the winner of the Grade 1 Sword Dancer at Saratoga on Aug. 29, was as low as 5-2 this week with some British bookmakers for the BC Turf, the richest turf race in the United States.
Undrafted and jockey Frankie Dettori will be partnered for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, trainer Wesley Ward said. The Grade 1, $1 million race will be run Oct. 31 at Keeneland.
Dettori guided Undrafted to a half-length win in the Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes on June 20 at Ascot. Undrafted has raced once since that six furlong race, finishing second in the $300,000 More Than Ready on Sept. 5 at Kentucky Downs. Ward said the horse’s next start will come in the Breeders’ Cup.
“He’s going to train into it,” said Ward.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Stellar Wind’s first start against older fillies and mares will be in Kentucky. The question is – which race?
Stellar Wind is based at Santa Anita, but trainer John Sadler said the 3-year-old filly will skip the Grade 1 Zenyatta Stakes on Saturday, and run in either the Grade 1 Spinster at Keeneland on Oct. 4 at Keeneland or train into the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
“I got a little behind the clock,” Sadler said Tuesday. “She got off her feed a little bit, and just a little backed up.”
ARCADIA, Calif. -- Big Macher will enter the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Sprint the same way he went in last year – as a fresh horse. This time, trainer Richard Baltas hopes he is not eliminated at the break. In the 2014 BC Sprint at Santa Anita, he stumbled at the break, trained for the first half-mile, and finished ninth.
“We’re going to work on that,” Baltas said Tuesday morning at Santa Anita, where Big Macher posted an easy 48-second half-mile workout under jockey Rafael Bejarano.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The march toward the final act of American Pharoah’s racing career began on Monday morning here at Santa Anita, where he had his first work since the Travers Stakes 23 days earlier and his first work in preparation for the Breeders’ Cup Classic 40 days hence.
