ELMONT, N.Y. – By the end of the meet, the Saratoga turf courses had become so speed-favoring that it may have skewed some of the results.
Horses like Soldat, who won the Grade 3 With Anticipation laying close to the pace, may have benefited from the way the course was playing, while a horse like Winter Memories may have had that much more to overcome when she rallied from well off the pace to win a maiden 2-year-old filly race.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Not that it is apparent in her undefeated 18-race career, but Zenyatta has a time of year when she may be better than ever, jockey Mike Smith insists.
The autumn, he said, seems to bring out the best in the wildly popular mare.
“She seems to get good at this time of year the last few years,” he said. “The way she’s going, she seems like she can do it again this year.”
While the Breeders’ Cup Marathon field remains in flux, three horses have earned a berth in the 1 3/4-mile dirt race by winning BC Challenge races. A.U. Miner won the $240,000 Greenwood Cup on July 17 at Philadelphia Park; Temple City captured the Grade 3 Cougar II Handicap on July 30 at Del Mar; Eldaafer won the Grade 3 Turfway Park Fall Championship on Sept. 11.
Three of the five Win and You’re In races for the Juvenile Fillies Turf have been run.
Misty For Me captured the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes on Aug. 29 at the Curragh for trainer Aidan O’Brien, who sent out Lillie Langtry to finish eighth as the favorite in last year’s Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita.
New Normal was an impressive front-running winner of the Grade 3 Natalma Stakes on Sept. 18 at Woodbine. Trained by Mark Frostad, she earned a big 88 Beyer Speed Figure in that one-turn mile.
With last Saturday’s Group 2 Juddmonte Royal Lodge Stakes at Ascot being a Win and You’re In race for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, the race had the clear potential to produce a Juvenile Turf starter.
And it very well might have, but barring the unexpected, it won’t be the 10-length winner, Frankel. Trainer Henry Cecil said after the race that Frankel was being pointed toward either the Oct. 16 Dewhurst at Newmarket or the Oct. 23 Racing Post Trophy for the colt’s final start of his juvenile campaign.
Nine of the last 11 runnings of the Breeders’ Cup Turf have been won by European-trained horses (including High Chaparral’s dead-heat victory with the U.S. horse Johar in 2003), a record that speaks volumes about the American breeding industry’s regard for stamina. This year’s running should once again fall to Europe, even though this has not been a sterling year for 12-furlong types there.
Headed by defending champion Informed Decision, the prospective field for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint is shaping up as a terrific one, with the cast also expected to include Champagne d’Oro, Dubai Majesty, My Jen, Rightly So, and Sara Louise.
After two years down Santa Anita’s unique hillside course at 6 1/2 furlongs, the third running of the Turf Sprint shortens up to five furlongs, which means it is right in the wheelhouse of Silver Timber and Chamberlain Bridge, the one-two finishers in the Grade 3 Churchill Downs Turf Sprint on the Kentucky Oaks undercard.
Silver Timber, who won the Shakertown three weeks prior to his victory at Churchill, is the only U.S.-based horse with two graded stakes wins in turf sprints this year.
Judging from her 2010 form, defending champion Midday will be difficult to beat in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf on Nov. 5. The field that will oppose Midday will be better known after key preps are run this weekend – the Yellow Ribbon in California, the Prix de l’Opera in France, and the Flower Bowl in New York.