ARCADIA, Calif. – Take a stroll down memory lane – a one-mile stroll.
There, a quarter-century away on a path back into time, John Velazquez, who rode the first of his three Breeders’ Cup Mile winners, Da Hoss, in 1998. Behind him, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, co-owner of 1994 Mile winner Barathea. Gerard and Alain Wertheimer – closer and easier to espy, Goldikova carrying their silks to Mile wins in 2008, 2009, 2010.
Nearer still, Mark Casse training Tepin to win the 2015 Mile, then World Approval – Velazaquez aboard – two years later. Between the Casses, Bill Mott with Tourist in 2016, Joel Rosario up. And Chad Brown with Uni in 2019, and Charlie Appleby and Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin with Space Blues in 2021, with Modern Games looking back at us from Keeneland just one year ago.
Hey, everybody! Meet in the Santa Anita paddock early Saturday afternoon. The time is now for this year’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Mile.
Velazquez rides Shirl’s Speight, a longshot despite his second-place finish in the 2022 Mile.
Goldikova won her first Mile as a 3-year-old at Santa Anita. Enter Kelina, a 3-year-old Wertheimer homebred coming off the race of her life, a win in the Group 1 Prix de la Foret. Goldikova won the Foret in 2009 and 2010.
World Approval was 5-2 when he won the Mile, but Casse’s hope, Lucky Score, will be 10 times that price.
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Mott is back with Casa Creed, and Casa Creed is back for his fourth try in a Breeders’ Cup race.
Uni was a filly beating boys, and Brown tries that trick again with Gina Romantica, rousing winner of the First Lady at Keeneland a month ago.
Rosario could join Velazquez and Olivier Peslier, Goldikova’s jockey, as a three-time Mile winner if he can work out a trip for 3-year-old More Than Looks from post 13.
Once upon a time, trainer Saeed bin Suroor was a Breeders’ Cup fixture. Now he’s back for the first time since 2010, bringing with him the 3-year-old filly Mawj. She carries the Godolphin silks, and so does Master of The Seas, who resides in the Appleby wing of the Godolphin estate. Appleby and Sheikh Mohammed must wish they could go back in time and redraw the Mile: Master of The Seas landed post 14.
Following narrative strands into the past is one thing. Finding a winner in this 14-horse Mile is quite another.
Songline is the 5-2 favorite on the track’s morning line. Daily Racing Form has her at 4-1, Master of The Seas at 3-1.
It’s a guessing game how this Mile will be bet. How it will be run looks clearer. Mawj is headed for the front. Win Carnelian might try to beat her there. Californian Astronomer could be sent from an outside post.
The prospect of Mawj and jockey Oisin Murphy loose on the lead means different things to different people: She’s 4-1 on the track’s morning line, 10-1 with Daily Racing Form.
Mawj may be serious. Group 1-placed in England at 2, she became a Classic winner in the 1000 Guineas on May 7, beating 19 rivals. Leading most of the way over a soft course, Mawj held off top-class favorite Tahiyra by a half-length. Behind Tahiyhra, empty space, a 7 1/2-length gap to third. Mawj would not start again until the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup on Oct. 14 at Keeneland, out of sight but not out of training.
“Every time we made her ready to run, [she would have] something like coughing, little things. She was always training, not hard work, but keeping a level so she has muscles and good condition,” bin Suroor said.
Don’t underrate Mawj’s QE II because it’s restricted to 3-year-old fillies: Runner-up Lindy is far from a no-hoper in the Filly and Mare Turf. Mawj is small and athletic, a perfect fit for Santa Anita.
“She’s a tiny filly with a big heart,” bin Suroor said.
Songline isn’t a handy water bug like Mawj, and Japan’s best miler has been winning her Group 1 races storming home through the three-furlong homestretch at Tokyo. Santa Anita’s homestretch is not even two furlongs. Songline’s connections believe she can stick closer to the leaders under Keita Tosaki, who never has ridden in North America. She will need to.
The other filly, 4-year-old Gina Romantica, surpassed Mawj’s performance at Keeneland when she ran down top-class In Italian on Oct. 7 in the First Lady. Gina Romantica’s previous peak came when she won the 2022 QE II at Keeneland, and she has yet to show that form at another track. Gina Romantica turned in a brilliant final quarter-mile to catch In Italian. Brown wonders if she ran too fast, too recently.
“She’s coming back a little bit quick. I asked the owner [Peter Brant] to think about the [Dec. 3] Matriarch, but he wanted to try the Mile,” Brown said.
Casa Creed might dislike the Keeneland turf course as much as Gina Romatica enjoys it. He couldn’t show his best there in the 2020 Mile and wasn’t competitive last year in the BC Turf Sprint. Nor did Casa Creed run well enough to contend Saturday in two previous trips to California. That was the past. This 7-year-old lives in the now.
“Maybe he’s a better horse than he was,” said Mott, who harbored minor concern that bouncy Casa Creed had worked too strongly paired with BC Sprint favorite Elite Power here last Sunday.
Du Jour is a fringy exotics player for trainer Bob Baffert, who hasn’t won a Breeders’ Cup turf race. Shirl’s Speight, like Gina Romantica, has raised his game at Keeneland. Win Carnelian, Masteroffoxhounds has yet to run a race to make a serious dent.
Kelina, a daughter of Frankel, has a case. She and Mawj get six pounds from the older males, and Kelina’s 120 Timeform Rating from her Foret stands up to the competition. She has been a far better horse on firmer going than on soft and can show some pace. Enough to get her decent position from post 11? Maybe not.
Trainer Cherie DeVaux said that while More Than Looks has been ridden like a hold-up horse, he doesn’t need to fall miles behind the leaders. But what can Rosario do from post 13? More Than Looks flew home to win the Jefferson Cup last out at Churchill Downs beating far softer competition.
The only horse drawn outside him is Master of The Seas, who crushed rivals in the Woodbine Mile in September but ran a tick below that form in the Keeneland Turf Mile last month, where leading American grass horse Up to the Mark nailed him on the wire. If Karakontie could win the 2014 Mile from post 14 at Santa Anita, Master of The Seas can’t be dismissed.
The bell rings, gate doors fly open. Is Mawj alone on the lead? Has Master of The Seas found a spot? Is Casa Creed turning back the clock? One mile later, the start will be nothing more than memory, another piece of Breeders’ Cup past.
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