After a career of some nice wins mixed with close top-level finishes that sometimes left her connections wondering if she'd reach racing's pinnacle, an aggressive approach paid off for Juddmonte homebred Scylla in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) Nov. 1 at Del Mar.
While there was no plan to seize the early lead and on paper, it appeared that recent Clement L. Hirsch Stakes (G1) winner Seismic Beauty, who entered off three straight front-running wins, would fill that role. That all changed in the initial stages of the race. Nitrogen, Clicquot, Scylla, and Seismic Beauty, who bobbled at the start, lined up four across the first time under the wire before Junior Alvarado sent Scylla to the lead and the rail.
That decision would prove correct as Scylla settled nicely, opened up 3 lengths in the stretch, and extended that advantage to 5 1/2 lengths at the wire in one of the more impressive efforts of Breeders' Cup weekend.
"She broke very sharp today and going by the wire the first time I said to myself, 'We're in good position.' We're moving along pretty quick but at that point I said, 'I can't drag her back and put her behind all the other horses that seem so slow at this point,'" said Alvarado, who also was aboard for Scylla's prep race, a third-place finish in the Spinster Stakes (G1) Oct. 5 at Keeneland.
Alvarado added that Scylla, a 5-year-old daughter of Tapit , can get a little upset if you force such a move.
"We thought that looking on paper that there was probably two or three other horses that could, and probably should, be on the lead with a good break," winning trainer Bill Mott said. "When the gates open, (jockeys) have got to make the decisions and (Alvarado) made the decision not to wrangle her back or get in a wrestling match with her. It turned out to be the right decision. She just kept rollin'."
After knocking on the door all season, registering back-to-back grade 1 placings in her two races before the Distaff—Scylla would not be denied Saturday as she completed 1 1/8 miles in 1:48.07 on a fast track to secure her first grade 1 score after four previous placings at that level. With the Breeders' Cup win, Scylla figures to be considered for champion older dirt female honors but the victory was her first of the season in a division where 2024 Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna also figures to be considered.
"It is tremendously satisfying," said Juddmonte's United States general manager Garrett O'Rourke. "I think it's even more so with this filly because I don't know how many times Bill and I have discussed it. We've had a lot of grade 1 winners over the years that I felt weren't nearly as good a racehorse as Scylla is. She showed up and ran fantastic races behind some exceptional horses.
"It was disappointing that we hadn't gotten it done but if you're going to do it, what a day to do it!"
Thorpedo Anna, who captured the 2024 Distaff, had been pointing to this year's edition but was retired after a fourth-place finish in the Spinster. Trainer Ken McPeek said some "mild bone bruising" was discovered after that race and the decision was made to retired the 4-year-old daughter of Fast Anna.
The Distaff also will go a long way toward determining the champion 3-year-old filly as Nitrogen rallied from fourth to finish second in Saturday's race, a half-length ahead of third-place Regaled. D. J. Stable homebred Nitrogen boasts three graded stakes wins on turf this year, a grade 1 placing on turf, a win in an off-the-turf grade 3, and a clear victory in the Alabama Stakes (G1) on the Saratoga Race Course main track. In 2024 Nitrogen earned Canada's champion 2-year-old filly honor.
"I'm proud of her. She ran her butt off," trainer Mark Casse said. "I think we know who the champion 3-year-old filly is now. That's what I wanted for her. I think she earned it today."
Regaled, who captured the Delaware Handicap (G3) in September, earned a placing in the first grade 1 start of her career Saturday.
Trainer D. Whitworth Beckman was pleased with Regaled and said she could target the Falls City Stakes (G3) Nov. 27 at Churchill Downs.
Gin Gin and Seismic Beauty were eased and they each walked off the track. Trainer Brendan Walsh suspects Gin Gin wasn't the same after breaking through the gate before the start but said he thinks she'll be fine.
For Mott and Alvarado, the Distaff win served as the latest roller coaster story in horse racing. Earlier this week, their two-time classic winner and Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) morning-line favorite Sovereignty, a homebred for Godolphin, was scratched because of a fever.
"It's been a mixed bag of emotions," Mott said. "We were really disappointed but it didn't take long really to accept what happened to Sovereignty. I think everybody that's connected to the horse has been through it. I've been through it.
"He's not the story of this race though. This one is all about Scylla and about Junior and the Juddmonte connections."
Mott and those connections did make the right race decision for Scylla, who finished fourth in last year's Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (G1) and two starts before Saturday's race finished second in the Ballerina Stakes (G1) at the same 7-furlong distance as the Filly and Mare Sprint.
"We looked at the fields and we just decided this was the race we were going to go," Mott said. "I think we made that decision without too much discussion really. I think (O'Rourke) was on the same page and it just worked out."
Mott also noted that the Spinster is an important race for Juddmonte so they pointed Scylla for that 1 1/8-mile test and when she ran third there, it made sense to continue to the Distaff.
The Distaff win marked another huge victory for one of the most successful current families in the U.S. Scylla is out of multiple grade 1 winner and 2014 champion older mare Close Hatches by First Defence. Scylla is a full sister to classic-placed grade 2 winner Tacitus and grade 3 winner Batten Down. Her dam is a full sister to the dam (Lockdown) of 2023 Breeders' Cup Distaff winner and two-time champion older dirt female Idiomatic (2023-24).
Scylla did her dam one better as Close Hatches finished second to Beholder in the 2013 Distaff at Santa Anita Park. Mott also trained Close Hatches.
"Scylla did it for us," Mott said. "She's from a family that I've been lucky enough to have other siblings. And she's out of a mare that was a champion for us. It's really great to be part of that and be able to carry on the tradition."
The family owns two Distaff wins since 2023 and Scylla could add another championship this season. If she secures that honor, it will give the family three wins in that division since 2023.
"We've tried to make a little bit of a switch for the American operation to go more to dirt horses so that we could target days like this one," O'Rourke said, adding that Scylla has been special from the start. "I can remember the day she was born. When you're working days and nights and going out for foalings and get disappointments ... But when she was born you just look at her and go, 'God, that's exactly as we scripted it. That's exactly what we want.'"
Scylla is the third grade/group 1 winner this season for Tapit, joining Arkansas Derby (G1) winner Sandman and Enforceable, a group 1 winner in Peru. Tapit will stand the 2026 season for $185,000 at Gainesway in Kentucky.
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