The Todd Pletcher-trained
Authenticity and Princess of Sylmar galloped at Santa Anita Wednesday morning in
preparation for their scheduled starts in Friday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup
Distaff.
Princess of Sylmar will seek her fifth straight Grade 1
victory in the 1 1/8-mile contest for fillies and mares with a chance of also winning
the Horse of the Year title, depending on the results of Saturday’s Breeders’
Cup program. Pletcher believes the daughter of Majestic Warrior has already done
more than enough to clinch the Eclipse Award for champion three-year-old filly.
“She’s had an unbelievable campaign. She’s run all year.
She won the (Kentucky) Oaks against some of the fillies in this race. Then, to
cap it off with the wins in the Coaching Club, the Alabama and the Beldame, to
me, regardless of what happens, I think the voters will reward her for the
consistency of her campaign and the fact that she did it all year,” Pletcher
said.
“She didn’t take any breaks. She ran in all the big dances
and took on older mares when she had easier options for more money. (Owner) Ed (Stanco)
has chosen the sporting route, just as we did going in the Beldame instead of
the Cotillion. To me it doesn’t make sense to sit out a race as prestigious as
the Distaff just to try to protect yourself as champion three-year-old filly.”
Princess of Sylmar’s two-length win over two-time
defending Distaff champion Royal Delta in the September 28 Beldame at Belmont had
been expected to be the last race of her 2013 campaign. However, Stanco decided
to go ahead and pay the $100,000 horse-of-racing-age fee to supplement his filly into
the Breeders’ Cup program.
“He always had some reservations about bringing her to
California as a three-year-old and running against older fillies and mares. He wants
to have her as a four-year-old,” Pletcher explained. “So there was never
anything the filly did to give us any reason not to want to continue looking at
it (Distaff). It was just that Ed had some reservations about a couple of
things. When she beat Royal Delta in the Beldame, that certainly gave him some
confidence that running against older mares was OK.”
Princess of Sylmar began her career in relative obscurity
while winning listed stakes at Aqueduct before scoring a 38-1 upset victory in
the Kentucky Oaks that began her rise to stardom.
“In the Oaks we felt like she was better than the public
“We weren’t shocked by the Oaks result. The Oaks, at the time, was being
Beholder, who clinched champion two-year-old filly honors in 2012 by winning
Beholder took to Santa Anita’s racetrack at 7:15 a.m. (PDT) Wednesday morning for a gallop of about 1 1/4
Mandella put the daughter of Henny Hughes away for four months
“Oh, yeah, I shut her down with the idea of
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Mandella brought Beholder back to win the one-mile Torrey
Pines at Del Mar by 2 3/4 lengths, then saddled the bay lass to a 1 1/4-length
victory in the 1 1/16-mile Zenyatta at Santa
Anita last month. The trainer thinks he has her ready and Beholder has been
acting like a horse sitting on ready during Breeders’ Cup week.
Will there be more racing for Beholder after the
Breeders’ Cup?
“Don’t know,” Mandella stated. “That’s going to be
up to the boss (B. Wayne Hughes of Spendthrift Farm). I’ll tell you though, I
wouldn’t mind. You might break a thousand yearlings and not come up with one
like her. We might be able to try some different things with her, too. I might
want to try her on the grass. I think she’d like it. You have lots of options
with a horse like her.”
Beholder isn’t the only one looking to turn the tables on Princess of Sylmar.
Defending Distaff champion Royal Delta has her own score to settle with her
younger rival.
Now five years old, Royal Delta picked up her
first Breeders’ Cup win, and first Eclipse as champion three-year-old filly, at Churchill Downs in 2011. She repeated last year at
Santa Anita and was honored as champion older female when joining the great
Bayakoa as the only two-time winner of the Distaff. On Friday, the Empire Maker
mare will try to hand Hall of Famer trainer Bill Mott his fourth straight and
sixth total Distaff win.
Mott’s previous winners were Ajina (1997), Escena (1998) and
Unrivaled Belle (2010).
Royal Delta will have familiar company in the starting gate as Mott is also
“She deserved to run here,” Mott said. “I don’t
“I don’t think I’m running a horse that doesn’t deserve to
Close Hatches and Royal Delta galloped on the main track
Street Girl is something of a wild card in the Distaff as the Rontos Racing Stable
“The exercise rider said she was a lot better out there
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Jockey Angel Castillo, who rode Street Girl for the first
time when she finished third in the Cotillion in her most recent start was supposed to be aboard
Wednesday morning.
“He got stuck in traffic and was running late and we had to
go,” Sanchez said. “He will gallop her tomorrow.”
Based on her fourth, beaten just 1 3/4 lengths, in the seven-furlong
Ballerina, Street Girl also had been pre-entered in the Filly & Mare
Sprint. However, Sanchez opted for the Distaff that features fillies and mares who
have combined for 15 Grade 1 wins.
“This filly is getting better and better every day,”
Sanchez asserted about his sophomore. “When we claimed her in her first race, we thought that
she could improve into a stakes filly.
“Why the Distaff instead of the Sprint? It is a short field
of six horses and everybody else in there is speed. We will be able to sit back
and make one run. Her last two races have been very good and in the Cotillion
she had a bad start, made her run and only got beat two lengths.
“She can beat them. That’s how good she is.”
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