Seven of the last 14 years, Aidan O’Brien has trained the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner. He has won the race’s last three editions, and Puerto Rico was thought to be the O’Brien-trained favorite for this year’s Juvenile Turf. Puerto Rico wasn’t pre-entered. O’Brien still has the favorite.
Gstaad would be the highest-rated horse O’Brien has sent to the Juvenile Turf, one with a stronger résumé than that of Puerto Rico, who won the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere last out. That’s the same race that produced Henri Matisse, the 2024 Juvenile Turf winner, and Unquestionable, who won in 2023.
Victoria Road, O’Brien’s 2022 winner, exited a French Group 3. Hit It a Bomb had run in an anonymous race at Dundalk before capturing the 2015 renewal, while Wrote, the 2011 winner, had run in the Group 2 Royal Lodge.
Gstaad exits a more important race, the Group 1 Dewhurst at Newmarket, where he finished second as the favorite, a performance rated higher than O’Brien’s other two Juvenile Turf winners who came out of the Dewhurst. Mendelssohn in 2017 finished second, George Vancouver third in 2012.
Gstaad has yet to win a Group 1 but has come close three times, finishing second by a neck in the Prix Morny and second by a head in the National before coming up three-quarters of a length short in the Dewhurst.
O’Brien’s second pre-entrant, Brussels, has the Juvenile Turf Sprint as first preference. If he goes there, Gordon Pass, a fast-closing third in the Bourbon at Keeneland, could get into the race. Fourteen can run in the one-mile Juvenile Turf, which drew 19 pre-entrants.
England-based Wild Desert was among the pre-entered horses but was withdrawn from the race before the Breeders’ Cup finalized their preference lists earlier this week. Wild Desert finished second in the Grade 1 Summer at Woodbine to Argos, one of nine American-based starters if Gordon Pass gets into the race.
While Bourbon winner Final Score, a front-runner, wasn’t pre-entered because of a reported shin injury, Bourbon second-place finisher Turf Star was. So, surprisingly, was Outfielder, winner of a first-level dirt-sprint allowance on Oct. 4 at Keeneland. Trained by Wesley Ward, Outfielder shipped to France to finish fourth in the Morny, beaten 2 1/2 lengths by Gstaad. He’s also entered in the Bowman Mill Stakes on Saturday at Keeneland, and Ward said a race choice wouldn’t be set until Thursday.
Outfielder would join California-based Hey Nay Nay as Juvenile Turf pace factors. Hey Nay Nay sharply won two turf sprints before landing the one-mile Del Mar Juvenile Turf.
Bottas won the Pilgrim by a narrow margin over Heeere’s Johnny but had a much tougher trip. Both horses were pre-entered, along with Pilgrim third Let’s Be Frank. Stark Contrast, winner of the Zuma Beach at Santa Anita, and Street Beast, blowout victor of the $1 million Juvenile Mile at Kentucky Downs, round out the American horses selected to start.
Humidity, second in the Group 2 Royal Lodge at Newmarket; Ardisia, a sprinter with 11 starts; and Group 3 winner North Coast are the other European pre-entrants.
The excluded horses behind Gordon Pass are, in preference order, Third Beer, Proton, and Caro Buono.
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