History and redemption are both on the line in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf being run Nov. 1 at Santa Anita Park.
Seeking to make history is last year's winner Dank, James Wigan's 5-year-old homebred daughter of Dansili, who is trying to become the second horse to capture two Filly & Mare Turf titles but the first to accomplish it in consecutive years. Ouija Board completed the feat in 2004 and 2006.
Dank, who will be breaking from post 3 and is slight early morning favorite at 5-2, has been given a tall order considering she has only made two starts this year. She finished third March 29 in the Dubai Duty Free, then finished fifth in the Prince of Wales's Stakes at Royal Ascot June 18. She came out of that race with a deeply bruised foot and has not made another start. Still trainer Sir Michael Stoute believes she is training well now and has such an affinity for firm turf that it is worth taking another shot in the Breeders' Cup.
BREEDERS' CUP FILLY & MARE TURF DRAW
Last year's champion turf female will have plenty of competition the 1-1/4-mile race that includes eight other Grade or Group 1 winners. The race will be the second Breeders' Cup World Championships race run Nov. 1, with a post time of approximately 12:43 p.m. PT.
Four of those eight Grade/Group 1 winners are coming into the race off of victories.
One of those most recent Grade 1 winners is Stephanie's Kitten, who is also looking to secure a place in history with a second Breeders' Cup victory since winning the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf in 2011. Ken and Sarah Ramsey's homebred daughter of Kitten's Joy has won once and been second twice in five starts this year, but she is the second choice in the field at 3-1. She will break from the outside at post 10. Stephanie's Kitten finished second Aug. 16 in the Beverly D. Stakes then rolled in deep stretch to a 1-1/4-length victory in the Sept. 27 Flower Bowel Invitational Stakes at Belmont Park.
Looking for redemption will be Dayatthespa, who made her only start in the Breeders' Cup in 2011 when she finished ninth in the Juvenile Fillies Turf behind Stephanie's Kitten. Dayatthespa is the only contender in the field who has won her last two starts, the Aug. 24 Yaddo Stakes at Saratoga Race Course and most recently Oct. 4 in the one-mile First Lady Stakes at Keeneland. The 5-year-old daughter of City Zip recorded a 114 Equibase Speed Figure at Keeneland, which was a point higher than fellow Filly & Mare Turf contender Emollient's performance in the Rodeo Drive Stakes.
Dayatthespa is trained by Chad Brown and co-owned by Jerry Frankel, Ronald Frankel, Steve Laymon, and Bradley Thoroughbreds. Dayatthespa has been racing largely at a mile and a mile and sixteenth and had been cross-entered in the Breeders' Cup Mile, but she has shown the two times she's raced at 1-1/8 miles that Brown felt the Filly & Mare Turf suited her best.
Juddmonte Farms' Emollient has two advantages going into the Filly & Mare Turf-the Rodeo Drive is run at the championship race's distance of 1-1/4 miles and it run at Santa Anita . The daughter of Empire Maker won by half a length over Parranda. Irish Mission and Rusty Slipper dead-heated for third in that race. All three of these contenders have also been entered in the Filly & Mare Turf. Emoillent, however, could go off at a bit of a price, with her early morning odds set at 12-1.
The other Grade 1 winner entering the race off a victory is Just The Judge, an Irish-bred who won the E.P. Taylor Stakes Oct. 19. She is owned by Qatar Racing and the Sangster Family. In her previous start, the daughter of Lawman finished third in the Beverly D Stakes, which Dank won last year before claiming her Breeders' Cup crown.