Bring on the Breeders' Cup Prep Races

by Bodog Racebook | Sep 15 2011

Saratoga and Del Mar are complete, but there's still plenty of great horse racing action at Turfway Park , Belmont Park , Santa Anita Park  - exactly 30 Graded stakes will be run at those tracks over the next three weeks.

In the meantime, the very first Breeders' Cup prep stakes will take place this weekend at Woodbine Racecourse, near Toronto, Canada as well as Belmont Park on the outskirts of New York.

At Belmont, there will be a pair of good races for turf fillies - the Grade-1 Garden City for 3-year-old fillies at nine furlongs on Saturday and the Grade-3 Noble Damsel at one mile for older fillies and mares on Sunday.

That said, the $1 million Woodbine Mile on Sunday figures to be the most important Breeders' Cup prep stake of the weekend.

This year, it will take on even more importance than usual as a good field will be trying to validate the notion that they will belong in the same race with three time Breeders' Cup Mile winner GOLDIKOVA, when that historic miler goes for her fourth straight victory in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Mile on Saturday, Nov. 5.

In New York, the headliner for the Garden City will be WINTER MEMORIES, who actually has never won a Grade-1 race, even though she has been a dominate winner of all her turf starts except for the $1 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies last fall and the recent Grade-2 Lake Placid at Saratoga last month.

Among her foes will be MORE THAN REAL, the filly winner of the 2010 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Winter Memories expense. HUNGRY ISLAND and KATHMANBLU are also in the Garden City after finishing first and second in front of Winter Memories in the Lake Placid.

Fact is, that Winter Memories was unable to fire her best shot in the Lake Placid, after getting trapped inside most of the way while jockey Jose Lezcano was not much help. Although Lezcano is considered a rising star and had previously won three stakes aboard Winter Memories during her good career, trainer James Toner is replacing Lezcano with JJ Castellano for Saturday's race.

"I just didn't like to see (Winter Memories) stuck inside that way," Toner explained. "The inside was deeper than the rest of the course (when the Lake Placid was run on a soft turf course) and I thought he had to get her into the clear much earlier than he did."

On Sunday, there are no nationally known horses in the Noble Damsel, but STRIKE THE BELL will be attempting to repeat her 2010 Noble Damsel victory. She may rate an edge based on last year's performance in this race and she is scheduled to face a modest group of eight or nine older fillies and mares that will include Aviate, Denomination, and Spring Party.

Realistically, each of these horses in the Garden City and Noble Damsel - including Winter Memories - will have to run impressively to suggest they might beat Grade-1 winners STACELITA and ZAGORA who are being prepared for their date in the $2 million BC Filly and Mare Turf at Churchill, Nov. 4.

In the Woodbine Mile on Sunday, the most prominent possible contenders include horses that ran well in the 2010 Woodbine Mile or finished second to Goldikova in the 2009 BC Mile:

COURAGEOUS CAT, for example, was second in the 2009 BC Mile and has been in peak form this year, winning the G-1 Shoemaker Mile at Hollywood two months ago before Hall of Fame trainer decided to freshen him up for this race.

COURT VISION, for another example, won this race last year while locally based WOODBURNE was third and pace pressing GRAND ADVENTURE, finished eighth.

In addition to the above three contenders, the rest of the field includes the European shippers SIDE GLANCE, DANCE AND DANCE, FORTE DEL MARMI, plus two more locally based threats - RIDING THE RIVER and  HOLINGER.

There is another turf race on the Woodbine Mile card that might have BC implications - the $750,000, G-1 Northern Dancer for 3 year olds and up at 1-1/2 miles. Yet despite the purse and the distance that matches the $3 million Breeders' Cup Turf, there are few horses of international merit in the field.

Perhaps the best of them in the Northern Dancer is the European shipper WIGMORE HALL, who has some good performances in his resume but is decidedly below the level of the Irish based CAPE BLANCO and the NY based WINCHESTER, both of whom are likely to be among the most formidable contenders on Breeders' Cup day.

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