DEL MAR, Calif. – In the final start of her career, Scylla saved the weekend for trainer Bill Mott and jockey Junior Alvarado.
Days after their Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty got sick and scratched from the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic, Scylla ($17.20) scored a front-running upset in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Saturday at Del Mar.
Scylla and Alvarado broke running, set a fast pace, and kept running to win the Distaff by 5 1/2 lengths over Nitrogen. Regaled rallied from far back to finish third, while 6-5 favorite Seismic Beauty bobbled at the break, grabbed herself, and finished next to last.
The win was Mott’s record-extending sixth win in the Distaff, but one of the first questions after the Distaff was about Sovereignty. He was favored to win the Classic but spiked a temperature midweek and scratched.
“It was a mixed bag of emotions,” Mott said regarding the untimely scratch of Sovereignty.
The trainer quickly pivoted to the topic at hand. Mott said Sovereignty “is not the story for this race. This one’s all about Scylla, Junior [Alvarado], and [owner] Juddmonte. Today, we were a great team.”
They often are. Scylla was making the final start of her career, and it was the best performance of her career. Strangely enough, the Filly and Mare Sprint seemed like a more appropriate race for Scylla early in the season. She had won at the Distaff distance of a mile and one-eighth, but even Mott believed she was best at an elongated one-turn race.
When it looked like the Filly and Mare Sprint was coming up tough, Mott and Juddmonte decided to run Scylla in the mile and one-eighth Spinster as a prep for the Distaff. Scylla finished third without an alibi. But the race served its purpose. It was an ideal segue to the Distaff.
And the Distaff was falling apart. The 2024 winner, Thorpedo Anna, retired, and Grade 1 winner Cavalieri was sidelined. When the gates opened Saturday for the Distaff, fate claimed another victim. This time it was Distaff favorite, Seismic Beauty.
Seismic Beauty, a front-runner favored off a highly rated Grade 1 win three months ago at Del Mar, lost her chance at the break. She bobbled at least twice soon after the break, was caught three-wide into the first run instead of her customary pacesetting position, and was empty at the half-mile pole. Jockey Juan Hernandez took care of her afterward.
“She bobbled a couple times, and when she bobbled, she grabbed herself,” Hernandez said. “I felt it right away. At the half-mile pole, she spit out the bridle. I asked her a couple times. She didn’t want to pick it up.”
While the favorite struggled, the pacesetter sizzled under Alvarado.
“She broke very sharp today,” Alvarado said, and he acknowledged the game plan was different than what transpired. Scylla does not normally set the pace, but Alvarado said to himself, “I can’t drag her back now.”
Her let her roll. Scylla smoked the opening half-mile in 45.75 seconds while hounded by Gin Gin, who was eased. Nitrogen was tucked fourth on the rail and went after Scylla on the far turn. Alvarado said he knew Scylla had gone fast, six furlongs in 1:10.02. But she was doing it easily.
“At the half-mile, I could feel I still had a lot of filly under me,” Alvarado said.
Scylla was chased by Nitrogen into the stretch, but the battle, and the war, was already won. Scylla ran away to win in 1:48.07. Her margin of victory was highest for the Distaff since 2006, when Round Pond won the Distaff at Churchill Downs by the same 5 1/2-length margin.
Scylla is a 5-year-old mare by Tapit, produced by five-time Grade 1 winner Close Hatches, who raced for and was bred by Mott and Juddmonte. Scylla has won six races and more than $2.2 million from 16 starts.
“She’s from a family that I’ve been lucky enough to have other siblings with, with us, and she’s out of a mare that was a champion for us,” Mott said. “It’s great to be a part of that and to be able to carry on the tradition.”
Mott trained Close Hatches and her foals, including graded stakes winners Tacitus and Batten Down. Mott said earlier that the Distaff would be the final race for Scylla.
Runner-up Nitrogen ran well, but was second best. She is expected to run next year as a 4-year-old. Regaled rallied from next to last to clunk up for third. After the top three, the order of finish was: Clicquot, Dorth Vader, Gun Song, Sarawak Rim, Dry Powder, Majestic Oops, Alice Verite, Seismic Beauty, and Gin Gin, who was eased. Scottish Lassie scratched earlier in the week.
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