Although trainer Mark Casse and Conquest Stables co-owner Ernie Semersky
seriously considered declaring My Conquestadory after she drew post 14 on
Monday, the undefeated dual graded stakes winning filly was still a go on
Tuesday morning for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.
“I think everybody has had a little time to take it all in. Right now, we
think we’re probably going to run. She deserves the chance,” Casse said.
The major determining factor is the courage and ability the daughter of Artie
Schiller displayed in her last effort, the Alcibiades at Keeneland, when she
overcame a world of trouble and then made a stunning middle move in traffic to
go from 10th to first and prevail by 1 3/4 lengths in just her second start.
“Had she not done that, we probably would be passing for sure,” Casse said.
“She’s shown she can handle adversity, although this is a much tougher field. In
any race, you have to have things go your way, and hopefully things go our way.
If they go our way, she should have a good chance of winning and if she does,
she does, and if she doesn’t she doesn’t. That’s why they call it horse racing.”
My Conquestadory and Juvenile contender Conquest Titan, also owned by
Conquest Stables, each galloped 1 1/2 miles under exercise rider Juan Bernardini
on Tuesday morning.
“Conquest Titan is a horse who we always thought is one of the best
two-year-olds we’ve had,” said Casse, whose 15 previous Breeders’ Cup starters
include 11 runners in Juvenile races and is the trainer of multiple juvenile
Sovereign Award winners and a two-year-old Canadian Horse of the Year. “We’ve
had some success with our two-year-olds so far, so that says a lot for him.
“He’s trained as good as any horse we have over at Churchill. We were
disappointed in his first race (a maiden special weight at Churchill Downs), but
he had some excuses and then he won the stake (Swynford) up at Woodbine.”
Last out, the son of Birdstone was fifth in the Breeders’ Futurity on
Keeneland’s Polytrack.
“With the (rainy) weather at Keeneland that day, Eurico (Da Silva, his
regular jockey) told me that he couldn’t see half the race. So it wasn’t the way
you’d want to go into the Breeders’ Cup, and I didn’t intend on going into the
Breeders’ Cup with him, but his last work on the dirt at Churchill was so good
we figured we’d give it a chance. So we’ll see,” Casse said.
Bob Baffert’s contingent moved forward toward their Saturday dates in the
weekend’s major two-year-old races. Tap It Rich, who worked Monday, walked the
shedrow Tuesday morning, while New Year’s Day, who had put in his final drill
Sunday, went back to galloping.
“I think those two colts (Tap It Rich and New Year’s Day) are both true
two-turn horses,” he said. “And, I think it takes a two-turn horse to win that
race. Tap It Rich, he’s only got that one race, but we’re throwing him in there
because of his raw talent.
“You don’t know with a young and inexperienced horse like that — he might
get dirt in his face and wind up in trouble — but we’re here (at Santa Anita)
and he’s got that talent, so it’s let’s go time. New Year’s Day, his two races
at Del Mar (a third and a win) were both good and he wants to go long.”