DEL MAR, Calif. – The Breeders’ Cup Distaff is no walk in the park for the favorite, or any of the 13 fillies and mares entered in the $2 million race on Saturday at Del Mar.
The filly wearing a bull’s-eye is front-runner Seismic Beauty, the 9-5 Distaff favorite after earning big figs in small-field stakes this spring and summer in California. Seismic Beauty is the one to catch in the 1 1/8-mile Distaff, race 7, but there is nothing small about this year’s field.
Despite the retirement of 2024 Distaff winner Thorpedo Anna and a setback that knocked out Grade 1 winner Cavalieri, the 2025 Distaff is deep. In addition to 4-year-old Seismic Beauty, Grade 1 winners include star 3-year-old Nitrogen, 5-year-old Dorth Vader, 3-year-olds Clicquot and Scottish Lassie, 4-year-old Gin Gin, and Sarawak Rim, a Group 1 winner in South America.
Distaff outsiders are Scylla, Alice Verite, Dry Powder, Regaled, Majestic Oops, and Gun Song. They will all chase Seismic Beauty, a Bob Baffert-trained front-runner making her first start since Aug. 2 when she wired the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch at Del Mar. Her 110 Beyer Speed Figure is the highest this year by a filly or mare around two turns.
“She ran fast and hard,” Baffert said, explaining her three-month layoff. “She runs fresh, and I had Cavalieri [for fall]. Trying to separate them, that’s why.”
Juan Hernandez rides Seismic Beauty, who wired the Grade 2 Santa Margarita with a 104 Beyer in May at Santa Anita. Seismic Beauty defeated four rivals in the Santa Margarita and five in the Hirsch.
It gets tougher for Seismic Beauty and jockey Juan Hernandez. Gin Gin has speed, Nitrogen has speed, and Scottish Lassie is likely to be forwardly placed along with Dry Powder.
Seismic Beauty is the speed of the speed. The 4-for-7 daughter of Uncle Mo is owned by MyRacehorse and Peter Leidel.
Nitrogen, 4-1 second choice, punched her Distaff ticket finishing second in the Grade 1 Spinster last month at Keeneland. It was her first start against older, and first in seven weeks. She was up against Thorpedo Anna, a fact not lost on Nitrogen’s jockey, Jose Ortiz, or trainer, Mark Casse.
“Jose told me in the paddock, I’m not going to let Thorpedo Anna get away, I’m going to stay after her,” Casse recalled.
Nitrogen pressed the pace three wide, put away Thorpedo Anna, and finished a head behind front-running winner Gin Gin.
The race served its purpose for Nitrogen, a Medaglia d’Oro filly owned and bred by the D. J. Stable of Leonard Green and his son, Jon. Nitrogen, who moved from turf to dirt this summer, has won six races, including five graded stakes, and more than $1.7 million from 11 starts.
Nitrogen breaks from post 1 and is expected to use her speed. That also is the plan for front-running Spinster winner Gin Gin. Trainer Brendan Walsh acknowledged Gin Gin was an 18-1 outsider wiring the Spinster, but he does not feel it was a fluke.
“She’s tough, they obviously found it very tough to get past her,” Walsh said.
Gin Gin will employ a similar strategy Saturday.
“We will send her away from there, that’s the way she needs to be ridden,” Walsh said. “She doesn’t absolutely need the lead, but she needs to be forward.”
Gin Gin, a Hightail filly owned and bred by Calumet Farm, will be ridden by Luis Saez.
Dorth Vader, 5-1 third choice, is an attractive gamble. George Weaver trains the mare for breeder John Ropes, whose confidence did not waver during a long layoff. A Grade 2 winner and Grade 1-placed at 3, Dorth Vader raced only once between August 2023 and March 2025.
“In 2024, it was kind of one thing after another,” Weaver said. “She had a respiratory issue in June of ’24, we gave her a little break, we brought her back, she was training well, and she came up with an orthopedic issue. That was the end of her 2024 year.”
Weaver said Ropes “was dedicated to giving this filly a chance to be a Grade 1 winner. He believed in her, and I didn’t discourage him.”
Weaver and Ropes carried on, and 2025 produced the desired results. Dorth Vader crushed the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps on a sloppy track at Saratoga in June. Well done, but could she run as well on a fast track?
Facing in-form Thorpedo Anna in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign in August at Saratoga, Dorth Vader gave Thorpedo Anna all she could handle. Dorth Vader missed by a nose, finished nearly 10 lengths clear of third, and earned a 100 Beyer. The next target was the BC Distaff. No preps needed.
“I felt like we had a better chance to win the Breeders’ Cup bringing her in there fresh,” Weaver said. “She’s had a busy enough campaign, starting in April at Gulfstream and then Churchill and then Saratoga and Monmouth and back to Saratoga.”
Dorth Vader, whose rider is John Velazquez, has won five races and more than $1 million from 17 starts. Dorth Vader is a Florida-bred by Girvin who typically presses the pace.
Clicquot is the second Walsh entrant in the Distaff. She won the Grade 1 Cotillion by neck over Dry Powder. It was more than two lengths back to Scottish Lassie in fourth. If the Distaff is won by a runner from the Cotillion, it will be a surprise.
Sarawak Rim is a Group 1 winner from Argentina, now trained by Ignacio Correas. He won the 2019 Distaff with Blue Prize and will retire after saddling Sarawak Rim. The 4-for-5 filly is entered in the Keeneland November sale next week.
Scylla is making the final start of her career for trainer Bill Mott and Juddmonte Farms. Fourth in the BC Filly and Mare Sprint last year, she finished third last out in the Spinster. Scylla is a mare without an ideal distance, but she has won five races and more than $1.2 million.
“We’re maybe caught a little in between with her,” Mott said. “I think she could be best at a one-turn mile, so seven-eighths is a little short. A mile and an eighth is maybe stretching her a little.
“She’s won at a mile and an eighth, but not a Grade 1.”
Alice Verite is a shipper from Japan. Regaled won the Grade 3 Delaware Handicap over a muddy track while defeating fourth-place Majestic Oops by more than 11 lengths. Majestic Oops reportedly did not care for the wet track. Gun Song won the four-runner Beldame last out.
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