Juveniles in Spotlight During Stakes-Laden Weekend

The busiest slate of Breeders' Cup Challenge Series races takes place over the next few days, beginning with five "Win and You're In" events Oct. 3 before eight Oct. 4 and further eight Oct. 5. Of these 21 races, 15 are run domestically, while France stages the other six Sunday, topped by the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (G1). There is a high-level emphasis on 2-year-old racing on the domestic front, with Friday's Alcibiades Stakes (G1) kicking off the top-tier Breeders' Cup prep action and later, Saturday's Champagne Stakes (G1), Breeders' Futurity (G1), and American Pharoah Stakes (G1). The filly victorious in the Alcibiades will earn a paid, automatic berth into the Oct. 31 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) while winners of the other three races advance toward the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) on the same Halloween Day card at Del Mar. The 1 1/16-mile Alcibiades at Keeneland lured the leading 2-year-old filly in the east in Spendthrift Farm's Spinaway Stakes (G1) winner Tommy Jo and just five others, one of them a maiden. The presence of the Todd Pletcher-trained Tommy Jo seemingly made the 1-mile Frizette Stakes (G1) at Aqueduct Racetrack an alternative spot for other trainers to run their 2-year-old fillies, even without that race being an automatic Breeders' Cup qualifier. It is part of the Breeders' Cup Dirt Dozen program, however, meaning the top three finishers earn credits on a $30,000-$15,000-$7,500 toward entry fees for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. The grade 1 status of the Frizette is of course also a key draw. Eleven fillies race in the Frizette, including several with much faster speed figures than the maiden winners in the Alcibiades. Legion Racing, MHM Stables, Ed Stefanski, and William Conlin's Carmel Coast is one such quick winner, coming off a debut maiden victory at Saratoga Race Course in which the Omaha Beach filly rolled to a front-running 5 1/2-length score for trainer Whit Beckman. Two of four returnees from her maiden race, including runner-up Lovely Christina, won next out. Lovely Christina also returns in the Frizette. While on the subject of flashy Saratoga maiden winners, the flashiest of them all—Double Down Horse Racing's It's Our Time, a 17 3/4-length winner Aug. 16—is even money on the morning line to win the 1-mile Champagne. His trainer, Tom Amoss, runs him back in a one-turn race after a month and a half of rest—lessening the chance of regression after a debut in which he sizzled 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:15.63, earning a 104 Equibase Speed Figure, the co-highest by a juvenile in North America this year. Only Breeders' Futurity favorite Ted Noffey ran as quickly on an Equibase Speed Figure scale in capturing the Hopeful Stakes (G1) by 8 1/2 lengths. It's Our Time worked 5 furlongs in 1:01 2/5 with stablemate and Breeders' Futurity entrant Big Dom Sept. 27 at Churchill Downs. It provided scant details of superiority. "They went with each other, and it was a workout that we had designed for them to stay together," Amoss said. "Neither of them were asked for a lot in the last part of the work. It was more of a stamina-style work." Bred in Virginia by South Gate Farm, It's Our Time, a $425,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale purchase, is out of the multiple stakes-winning Summer Front mare Shea D Summer. His sire, Not This Time, is the second-leading stallion in North America this year by progeny earnings, trailing six-time general sire leader Into Mischief. Not This Time is also the sire of Brookdale Racing, Lance Gasaway, and Magdalena Racing's Blackout Time, a runaway winner when routing in his second career start in a 1-mile Ellis Park maiden race Aug. 2. He is one of the top contenders in the 1 1/16-mile Breeders' Futurity. After an initial runner-up finish on debut going 6 furlongs at Churchill Downs, trainer Kenny McPeek could have confidently shipped this colt to Saratoga for the summer. Instead, he opted for Ellis to quickly stretch him out—an endorsement of the colt's prospects as a two-turn horse. He's bred to appreciate even further distances, being out of the Elusive Quality mare Beauty Parlor, who won the Orchid Stakes (G3T) at 1 1/2 miles on turf in 2015. Were Blackout Time not facing Spendthrift Farm's Ted Noffey, who was sensational in taking the 7-furlong Hopeful Stakes to improve to 2-for-2 for Pletcher, he would rate on top. While the pair of grade 1 juvenile winners from the summer at Saratoga are in action this weekend at Keeneland, the top-level stakes winners from Del Mar are sitting out Santa Anita Park's two-turn Breeders' Cup preps. Del Mar Debutante Stakes (G1) winner Bottle of Rouge and Del Mar Futurity (G1) winner Brant are absent from the Oak Leaf Stakes (G2) and American Pharoah, respectively. Those races are also at 1 1/16 miles. Even without Zedan Racing Stables' Brant—the top juvenile at Del Mar this summer—Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert holds his customary mighty hand in the American Pharoah, a race he has won 13 times, including the past four years. He has four of the six entered, with his top two likely being Best Pal Stakes (G3) winner and Del Mar Futurity runner-up Desert Gate and gritty debut scorer Kristofferson. Baffert felt Desert Gate ran well in the Del Mar Futurity, noting, "He sort of stumbled leaving there and missed the break a little bit. But he sat behind the speed and then kept coming. Brant was pretty strong that day." As for Kristofferson, he calls him "a big horse, and two turns will not be a problem. I was actually really surprised he won first out." Intrepido, who took a fast two-turn maiden route at Del Mar for owners Dutch Girl Holdings and Irving Ventures and trainer Jeff Mullins, and the talented maiden Civil Liberty complete the field. The latter, a son of Independence Hall owned by Great Friends Stables and Mark Davis and trained by Doug O'Neill, had the misfortune to face the pricey and unbeaten Brant in each of his two outings, initially when second to him in a maiden race and most recently when third behind him and Desert Gate in the Del Mar Futurity.