Trainers Bob Baffert and Todd Pletcher have combined to win the last four runnings of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and eight of the last 15. Both Hall of Fame trainers have top contenders for the 42nd running of the Juvenile to be run Oct. 31 at Del Mar.
While Baffert appears to have a bushel of contenders, Pletcher is likely to go with just one. But Ted Noffey might be the right one.
Ted Noffey, who went 2 for 2 at Saratoga, including a dominant victory in the Grade 1 Hopeful, heads a field of seven entered in Saturday’s $650,000 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland. The Breeders’ Futurity is one of three Grade 1 stakes offered this weekend – the Champagne at Aqueduct and the American Pharoah at Santa Anita are the others – that offer fees-paid berths into the $2 million BC Juvenile and should help shape the field for the championship-defining race.
Pletcher, who has won the BC Juvenile four times, chose the Breeders’ Futurity over the Champagne for Ted Noffey because he is anxious to get the horse out in distance. The Breeders’ Futurity is run at 1 1/16 miles around two turns, the same configuration as the Juvenile.
Baffert has won the Juvenile six times, including last year with Citizen Bull. He has started at least three runners in the race five times, including three of the last four years. Baffert figures to have multiple runners again this year.
Brant, the Del Mar Futurity winner, is training up to the Juvenile after winning the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity on Sept. 7. Baffert is 0 for 3 in the Juvenile with horses who won the Del Mar Futurity and didn’t have a race in between. Gaming, last year’s Del Mar Futurity winner, finished second in the Juvenile without having a race in between.
Baffert has entered four in Saturday’s American Pharoah – a race he has won 13 times – led by Del Mar Futurity runner-up Desert Gate, who won the Best Pal Stakes by 8 3/4 lengths. Kristofferson was a very fast debut winner going six furlongs, while Plutarch is returning to dirt after a runner-up finish in the Del Mar Juvenile Turf last out. Balboa, fifth in the Del Mar Futurity, is Baffert’s other American Pharoah runner.
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Intrepido, trained by Jeff Mullins, and Civil Liberty, second to Brant on debut and third in the Del Mar Futurity for Doug O’Neill, round out the American Pharoah field.
Baffert sent Litmus Test to Keeneland for the Breeders’ Futurity. He was a debut winner sprinting at Del Mar and fourth, beaten 4 1/4 lengths by Brant, in the Del Mar Futurity.
“The distance is going to be great for him,” Baffert said.
In addition to Ted Noffey, the Futurity field includes the Kenny McPeek-trained Blackout Time, a dominant 9 3/4-length winner of an Aug. 2 maiden race at Ellis Park that produced four next-out winners; Spice Runner, winner of the Iroquois Stakes at Churchill Downs; and Ewing, winner of the Grade 2 Saratoga Special.
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Baffert will not have a runner in the Champagne at Aqueduct, a race where It’s Our Time, a 17 3/4-length debut winner at Saratoga, looms the favorite in a field of nine for trainer Tom Amoss. Debut winners Talkin and Napoleon Solo, as well as Hopeful third-place finisher Curtain Call, are among the others in the Champagne.