The North American preliminaries came to a close last weekend, clarifying the division, and while the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket in England comes Saturday, we’ve probably already found the favorite for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.
Aidan O’Brien, who has trained the last three winners of the Juvenile Turf, and who has won the race seven times, as of Tuesday had six horses still among the possible final entrants for the Dewhurst. But his prime candidate for Del Mar, Puerto Rico, ran this past Sunday.
Puerto Rico, making his seventh start of the year, improving in literally every race, went straight to the front and never came close to facing a real challenge winning the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere by 2 1/2 lengths on Sunday at Longchamp Racecourse. The Lagardere is contested around a bend over seven furlongs. In post-race interviews, O’Brien said jockey Christophe Soumillon had told him that Puerto Rico would stay a one-mile trip. The colt would get a chance to prove it next month at Del Mar.
Henri Matisse, who won the 2024 Juvenile Turf for O’Brien and Coolmore, finished fifth in the Lagardere, while Unquestionable, O’Brien’s winner in 2023, was the Lagardere runner-up. Victoria Road in 2022 came out of the Prix de Conde in France before winning the Juvenile Turf at Keeneland.
O’Brien often runs two in the Juvenile Turf, though who the second might be this year remains uncertain.
On this side of the Atlantic, Aqueduct, Keeneland, and Santa Anita all hosted divisional races this past weekend. The American hopefuls this year might turn out an above-par group.
Final Score in winning the Bourbon at Keeneland only earned a 76 Beyer Speed Figure, down from his 81 in the With Anticipation at Saratoga, but the diminutive colt’s performance appeared to exceed the number. Sitting chilly on the lead, even while pressed hard by a horse to his outside, Final Score, as he did at Saratoga in two turf-route wins, showed he has a good turn of foot to accompany his early speed. Trained by Todd Pletcher for Repole Stable, he’ll head to the Juvenile Turf as one of the leading American hopes.
Turf Star, the Bourbon runner-up, also goes to the Juvenile Turf, while third-place Gordon Pass runs if he can make the field.
The Pilgrim in New York has not proven a hotbed of Juvenile Turf success, but Bottas, winner of this year’s renewal on Oct. 3, could prove a cut above. Bottas, trained by Breeders’ Cup newcomer Miguel Clement, won his debut, a Saratoga turf route, by 2 1/4 lengths, and while his Pilgrim victory came by a mere head, Bottas displayed athleticism and bravery slicing through tight spots to outrun Heeere’s Johnny to the wire. The connections of Heeere’s Johnny, twice stakes-placed but still a maiden after four starts, will run in the Juvenile Turf if they can.
At Santa Anita, Stark Contrast captured the Zuma Beach Stakes, which rarely has an impact on the Juvenile Turf, but the race did not include California’s leading divisional hope, Hey Nay Nay. Trained by John Sadler, Hey Nay Nay passed the Zuma Beach to come fresh to the Juvenile Turf after winning a pair of turf sprints, the second at Monmouth Park, before stretching out to one mile and comfortably winning the Del Mar Juvenile Turf on Sept. 7. That race’s runner up, Plutarch, switched to dirt and finished a competitive second last weekend in the Grade 1 American Pharoah.
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◗ The connections of Cape Orator, based in England with trainer Ralph Beckett, hope to run the colt in the Juvenile Turf. A well-beaten third behind Puerto Rico at Doncaster in September, Cape Orator beat 15 rivals in a $300,000 race Oct. 5 at Longchamp.
Other overseas horses who seem relatively certain for Del Mar include Wild Desert, who shipped from England to Woodbine to finish a troubled second in the Summer Stakes; Humidity, second in the Group 2 Royal Lodge over one mile at Newmarket; and Oceans Four, an England-based Group 3 winner in France on Sept. 20.
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