It doesn’t appear Ted Noffey will have many challengers in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, but he will encounter at least one familiar foe as Blackout Time, second to Ted Noffey in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland on Oct. 4, will take him on again in the Juvenile, trainer Kenny McPeek said Tuesday.
Shortly after the Futurity was run, McPeek wavered on whether he wanted to ship Blackout Time to California or keep him home for the fall. But the prospect of a short field was enticing to McPeek, who has tabbed five-time Eclipse Award winner Irad Ortiz Jr. to ride Blackout Time in the Juvenile on Oct. 31 at Del Mar.
“The notion that it’s going to be a shorter field, some of them in there we’ve beaten already and we’re not too far off,” McPeek said. “With a bit of improvement, I think we can beat Ted Noffey.”
In his second career start, Blackout Time won a one-mile maiden race by 9 3/4 lengths at Ellis Park on Aug. 2. In the Breeders’ Futurity, Blackout Time saved all the ground while racing inside of Ted Noffey. After Ted Noffey took the lead at the head of the lane, Blackout Time went after him, but was no match, finishing 2 3/4 lengths behind while 2 1/4 lengths clear of Litmus Test, who set the pace.
“Loved it,” McPeek said. “He’s everything we expected him to be. We’ve been ultra-patient with him, kept him under bubble wrap after his maiden win, waited for the Futurity. With a modest amount of improvement, he’s going to get a payday out there.”
Comport, winner of the Ellis Park Juvenile and second, beaten a head by Spice Runner in the Grade 3 Iroquois Stakes on Sept. 13 at Churchill Downs, was also confirmed a starter for the Juvenile by Eddie Kenneally.
Aside from those two horses and Ted Noffey, there are only five others as of Wednesday expected to be pre-entered by Monday’s deadline. That includes the trio of Brant, Desert Gate, and Litmus Test from the barn of Bob Baffert; American Pharoah Stakes winner Intrepido, trained by Jeff Mullins; and Civil Liberty, a maiden trained by Doug O’Neill who was fourth in the American Pharoah and third in the Del Mar Futurity.
If only eight are pre-entered and that many run, it would equal the number who ran in 2019, 2004, and 1997 as the smallest Juvenile field.
Ted Noffey, undefeated in three starts and the expected Juvenile favorite, is scheduled to return to the work tab this week in Saratoga for trainer Todd Pletcher. He ships to California on Oct. 26.
Brant may be the most highly regarded of Baffert’s trio. He won a maiden race in which Civil Liberty was second and Intrepido was fourth and earned a 101 Beyer Figure. Brant came back to win the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity on Sept. 7. Baffert, a six-time winner of the Juvenile, opted not to run him between that race and the Juvenile.
Baffert said the racing break “was good for him. He’s not a big horse. The races he ran at Del Mar, he didn’t need to run again. He’s worked well, he’s healthy, [and] that’s the most important thing, keeping them healthy.”
Baffert said Plutarch, third in the American Pharoah, may run in the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance Stakes on turf on Oct. 31.
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