A few Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Editions to Remember

The calendar moving to October means we are less than one month away from the 2015 Breeders’ Cup World Championships. Beautiful Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington, Kentucky is the site for this year’s two-day festivities and Horse Racing Nation has wall-to-wall coverage of all thirteen races.

My coverage this year on “Shapper Da California Capper” will focus on the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies and include several pieces leading up to the crowning of the 2015 champion two-year old filly. Before I start “digging in” to this year’s prospective field that likely will include such stars as Songbird and Rachel’s Valentina to name a few, I wanted to take a look back at two of the performances I remember most. I could have chosen several, but I elected to select two events from different decades that included both a thrilling race, as well as remarkable efforts from two of the best trainers of my lifetime.

I attended the racetrack several times before I was 17 years old, but it was not until my junior year in high school that I became what I would consider an avid fan of thoroughbred racing. A good friend gave me several VHS recordings that year that contained many of the Breeders’ Cup races from the past. Amongst those included was the 1988 event that took place at historic Churchill Downs. While many of that day’s championship events were memorable, the race call, the stretch run and the utter domination of one of the all time great conditioners, made that rendition of the Juvenile Fillies one I will never forget.

The 12-horse field of young ladies included five from the D. Wayne Lukas barn and in one of the more mind-blowing achievements in Breeders’ Cup history, “the Coach” finished one-two-three in that year’s Juvenile Fillies. In the end, it was the daughter of Deputy Minister, Open Mind that hit the wire first to win her fifth career start and first around two turns. Hall of Fame jockey Angel Cordero, Jr. had the eventual Eclipse Award winner over fifteen lengths off of the early pace set by Eloquent Minister. When they turned for home in Louisville, it was eight across the track and anyone’s race. In one of Tom Durkin’s finest and most challenging Breeders’ Cup stretch calls, it was Hall of Fame jockey Angel Cordero, Jr. that found room between runners and led the Eugene Klein owned filly to the winners’ circle on that fall day in Louisville. An unbelievable ride by Cordero on what turned out to be an incredible filly. Joseph Allen owned Darby Shuffle finished second, and Calumet Farm’s daughter of Secreto, Lea Lucinda completed the Trifecta. Lukas did the unthinkable. He had the first, second and third place finishers in a Breeders’ Cup race in his barn. What an achievement!

The thrilling late run victory and the Eclipse Award for American Champion Two-Year-Old Filly was just the start for Open Mind. The chestnut filly went on to win twelve of nineteen career starts and the Eclipse Award for champion three-year-old as well. Her 1989 campaign goes down as one of the most impressive ever for a three-year old female. Not only did she capture the Kentucky Oaks and the Alabama Stakes, but she was one of eight fillies ever to win what is known as the “Triple Tiara.” At the time, this included the Acorn Stakes at eight-furlongs, The Mother Goose at nine-furlongs and the Coaching Club American Oaks at a mile and a half. The event has been modified a few times since Open Mind’s accomplishment and now consists of the Acorn, the CCA Oaks and the Alabama. Sky Beauty was the last filly to sweep the “New York Filly Triple Crown” in 1993. For some reason, its prestige has been lost over the years, but that should not take away from the accomplishment. Open Mind’s career earnings topped $1.8 million dollars.  She passed away in Japan in 1998 and was inducted into the US Racing Hall of Fame in 2011.

Nine years later, the site was once again Churchill Downs in Louisville. A California-based trainer that won his first Breeders’ Cup event in 1992 with sprinter Thirty Slews, was not only able to capture his first Juvenile Fillies title, but dominated the 1998 event running first and second in another thrilling version of the event. Bob Baffert swept the exacta in what is the second of my two most memorable renditions of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

The undefeated daughter of Silver Deputy, Silverbulletday, was sent to post as the odds-on favorite. She entered the race coming off a win in the Alcibades at Keeneland and winner of four of her first five starts. Not only did she appear to be the most talented, but she had already proven to have an affinity for the surface with a maiden-breaking score and a win in the Grade III Debutante Stakes at Churchill Downs. The 1998 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies was clearly Silverbulletday’s race to lose as she entered the starting gate at 4-5 on the tote board.

In addition to having the star Mike Pegram owned runner, Baffert also sent Golden Eagle Farm homebred Excellent Meeting to the gates as the 4-1 second choice. She came to Louisville with three wins in six career starts, including two straight in the Grade II Del Mar Debutante and the Grade I Oak Leaf. She was certainly no “slouch.”

When the bell sounded, Silverbulletday was taken in hand by jockey Gary Stevens. She bought her time early, rating off the rail a few lengths off the pace. Stevens remained poised and confident and when the field hit the top of the stretch, the star filly made a three-wide move and wrested the lead from Extended Applause. She began to inch away, but the daughter of General Meeting was not done yet. Kent Desormeaux gave all he could on Excellent Meeting, but she could not get to Silverbulletday in the final furlong. As the voice of the Breeders’ Cup Tom Durkin proclaimed, “Baffert 1-2 in the Juvenile Fillies!” Another astonishing training achievement for another all-timer!

Silverbulletday went on to rattle off six more victories in a row including the Ashland at Keeneland and the highly coveted Kentucky Oaks. She took a shot at the boys in the mile and a half Belmont Stakes, but could do no better than seventh. She finished her racing career with fifteen wins in twenty-three starts and earnings over $3 million dollars. She was inducted into the U.S Racing Hall of Fame in 2009.

Her stable mate Excellent Meeting had a great career as well, going on in her three-year old campaign to win several stakes races including the Santa Anita Oaks and Fantasy Stakes before trying her luck in the 1999 Kentucky Derby where she finished a solid fifth. She moved on to the second leg of the Triple Crown, the Preakeness Stakes, but failed to finish the mile and three-eighths challenge. Excellent Meeting completed her career on the racetrack with eight wins in twenty starts and over $1.4 million dollars in earnings.

While the 1988 and 1998 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies are certainly two racing memories to covet, there were several others that were remarkable in their own right. Go For Wand, Meadow Star, Phone Chatter, Flanders, Sweet Catomine and Dreaming of Anna are some of the other fillies to hit the wire first in the two-year old filly route event. Southern California-based star mare Beholder held off Executiveprivilege to capture the 2012 event and most recently Lukas did it again with Take Charge Brandi. The 2015 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies promises to be another thriller with several that could be special ones in their own right. Stay with “Shapper Da California Capper” over the next month for coverage of the $2 million dollar event that is slated for 12:05 PM EDT on Halloween.