BREEDERS CUP KICKS OFF AT CHURCHILL DOWNS

The Breeders Cup kicked off at Churchill Downs with the term Futures Friday as all the races were for juveniles. The temperature was a cool 50 degrees and the turf was listed as good, but more on the soft side.

JUVENILE TURF SPRINT
A VERY SPEEDY BULLETIN GOES WIRE TO WIRE TO BE THE WINNER

First up was the initial running of the Juvenile Turf Sprint over 5½ furlongs and the winner who went wire to wire was the very speedy BULLETIN from the Todd Fletcher barn who went off at the odds of 4-1. The son of City Zip went wire to wire under jockey Javier Castellano and was backed down from the rather over generous morning line odds of 10-1. Long shot Chelsea Cloisters finished second and So Perfect finished third. Bulletin is the first horse in Breeders Cup history to win a Breeders Cup race in only his second start. Bulletin won his maiden race in Florida by seven lengths and it will be interesting to see where Fletcher places him in the future. There were three fillies in the starting line-up and the highly touted Soldiers Call from England let his backers down as the favorite. The dam of Bulletin is Sue’s Good News out of Woodman.

JUVENILE FILLIES TURF
NEWSPAPER OF RECORD LANDS THE ODDS

The Juvenile Fillies Turf proved to be a seven length cakewalk for the 3-5 favorite Newspaper of Record ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr and trained by that man Chad Brown. European invader East finished second and Stellar Agent picked up the minor honors. The classy daughter of Lope de Vega was actually bred in Ireland out of the British mare Sunday Times and she is now unbeaten in three starts and the winning margin is a total of 18 lengths from the three starts. In this race the jockey just sat there loping along in the lead and when the effort was needed he just turned on the cruise control. The winning owner is Seth Klarman, who operates under Klaravich Stables, and this is a filly that is going places big time. The winning time was 1:39 for the one mile turf race but that can be ignored considering the conditions and the way the race was run. The runner up EAST deserves a mention, after only her third start. The daughter of Frankel broke her maiden at Hamilton, a track in Scotland that is not known for Breeders Cup runners, and she picked up a decent check for trainer Kevin Ryan.

JUVENILE FILLIES
ANOTHER FRONT RUNNING WINNER – JAYWALK

The always exciting Juvenile Fillies featured a hot favorite in the West Coast invader Bellafina, owned by Indian entrepreneur Kaleem Shah. However she could only finish fourth, behind the impressive front running winner JAYWALK available at the generous odds of 5-1. The race turned out to be a carbon copy of Jaywalk’s win in the Frizette, a race that has produced more Juvenile Fillies winners than any other. Jaywalk has now won four of five lifetime starts and was ridden by Joel Rosario who now has seven Breeders’ Cup victories to his name. Winning trainer John Servis finally gets his first BC victory with the daughter of Cross Traffic out of the Orientate mare Lady Pewitt. This win will boost the standing of Cross Traffic who currently stands at Spendthrift Farm. Jaywalk was bred at Gainesway Farm in Kentucky and is owned by the Cash is King Stables. She already has earnings of $1.38 million. The second place spot was filled by Restless Rider with Vibrance coming in third.

JUVENILE TURF
FIRST WIN FOR THE EUROPEANS WITH LINE OF DUTY

The Europeans finally got their first win on Friday with the Godolphin owned LINE OF DUTY ridden by William Buick and trained by Charlie Appleby. Line of Duty is a gritty son of Galileo and this time the horse had to come from way behind to overtake the leaders in the final strides. There was some bumping with the second place finisher Uncle Benny which resulted in a ridiculously long steward’s inquiry but the result did not change. Again the rather poor morning line maker at Churchill had put Line of Duty at 10-1, which was ridiculous considering his form in England and France. He broke his maiden at Goodwood in September and then captured the Prix de Conde at Chantilly a month ago. This was the third Breeders’ Cup triumph for trainer Appleby out of just five attempts and confirmed the superiority of the invaders in this event. Uncle Benny ran a great race in second place in just his third start, and the long time leader Somelikeithotbrown finished a game third. Line of Duty is out of the mare Jacqueline Quest and the breeder is Triermore Stud.

JUVENILE
GAME WINNER STEALS THE DAY FOR BAFFERT

Bob Baffert has another juvenile star and his name is GAME WINNER and he duly obliged in the Juvenile at even money odds to remain unbeaten in four starts. With jockey Joel Rosario aboard, Game Winner survived a rough trip going four and five wide the entire race to finally overcome long shot Knicks Go in the final strides. Game Winner is a son of Candy Ride and he has the Del Mar Futurity and the American Pharaoh Stakes under his belt and his bank roll now stands at $1.49 million. He will now be installed as the Kentucky Derby favorite as he clearly loves the track, and the win was the fifteenth Breeders Cup success for trainer Baffert. Rosario moved on to eight BC wins after having a big day, and Candy Ride will continue to move up the stallion rankings. Game Winner is out of the mare Indyan Giving and was bred by Summer Wind Equine. Candy Ride stands at Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky.