When it comes to the Breeders’ Cup, Kevin Attard is torn.
The trainer of the terrific 7-year-old mare Starship Jubilee is trying to decide whether to run her in the $2 million Filly and Mare Turf at 1 3/16 miles or the $2 million Mile, where she would meet mostly males.
While Jackie’s Warrior, winner of Saturday’s Grade 1 Champagne, and Essential Quality, the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity winner, figure to take the bulk of the money in this year’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, one potential under-the-radar horse who deserves attention is Rombauer, the runner-up from the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes at Santa Anita.
At the end of the 2019 season, it would have been no stretch to forecast Got Stormy as a major contender for the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keeneland. The multiple Grade 1 winner – who set a course record in the Fourstardave Handicap against males at Saratoga –was a fine second to champion Uni in the 2019 Mile at Santa Anita.
But after a season of downs and ups and reinvention, Got Stormy now appears more likely to be one of the favorites for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.
Second of July debuted in September at Belmont Park and caused fireworks on the toteboard, returning $138.50 for his maiden victory as the longest shot in the race. The colt was again dismissed three weeks later as the highest price in Belmont’s Grade 3 Futurity. He rewarded his backers a second time, to the tune of $33, by beating favored After Five by a half-length.
As with fruits, vegetables, and a Prince from Bel Air, fresh is best when it comes to Global Campaign.
He won his first start in January 2019. He won his comeback race in 2020, returning from a layoff of nearly nine months. And when he makes his next start, in the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 7 at Keeneland, he will not have run in two months, mirroring the schedule he had prior to his first stakes win, in last year’s Grade 3 Peter Pan.
Campanelle is undefeated in three starts racing in three countries, a schedule more commonly associated with top-class runners from Europe than an American-based 2-year-old filly.
Campanelle won a maiden special weight race on May 31 at Gulfstream Park, the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes on June 20 at Royal Ascot in England, and the Group 1 Prix Morny against males on Aug. 23 at Deauville, France. Those races have put Campanelle on schedule for the richest race of her career in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, a $1 million race at a mile on Nov. 6 at Keeneland.
Four days after the speedy C Z Rocket registered the second victory of what has become a five-race winning streak, it was with mixed emotions that trainer Peter Miller announced the retirement of his two-time Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Roy H. Four and a half months later, C Z Rocket will try to give Miller his third Sprint title in the last four years when he goes postward among the favorites in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 7 at Keeneland.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The likely favorites for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint all had their final prep races on the first weekend of September, but the final spots for a fringe player or two could still be earned Saturday in the Grade 2 Raven Run at Keeneland.
The Raven Run is restricted to 3-year-old fillies, whereas all other open preps toward the Filly and Mare Sprint already have been held. Venetian Harbor, in from California for Richard Baltas, is among the Raven Run entries, along with Four Graces and several other Filly and Mare Sprint hopefuls.
Swiss Skydiver’s weekend routine is straightforward. Saturday is workout day. Once a month, Saturday is race day.
“It’s a pretty simple program; it’s not complicated,” trainer Ken McPeek said this week from Churchill Downs, where Swiss Skydiver will work an easy half-mile Saturday, her first work since winning the Preakness Stakes. McPeek is looking for a time of about 50 seconds.
“It’s keeping her happy and letting her do what she feels like doing,” McPeek said.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Dayoutoftheoffice furthered her status among the divisional elite by winning the Grade 1 Frizette last Saturday at Belmont Park in a terrific follow-up to her breakthrough triumph in the Grade 3 Schuylerville in July.
The two-length Frizette score resulted in a 92 Beyer Speed Figure and places Dayoutoftheoffice among the core of favorites for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 6 at Keeneland, along with Princess Noor and Simply Ravishing. All three 2-year-old fillies are unbeaten in three starts.
