My Favorite Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Races

Here is a chronological list of my favorite runnings of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies.  Check out the chart of all of the winners of the race to see if you have favorites of your own.

 

1984 – The Winner gets DQ’d. In the inaugural running of the BC Juvenile Fillies, 74-1 longshot Fran's Valentine crossed the finished line first, but she was disqualified and placed tenth for interference at the top of the stretch.  She veered right sharply as jockey Pat Valenzuela made some running room. This is the only dq in the history of this race.

 

1988 – D. Wayne Lukas to Win, Place, and Show. In 1988 horses with a common trainer and/or ownership still ran as an entry.  That year Lukas had a five-horse entry that managed to take the top three finishing positions, with future Hall of Famer and New Jersey-bred Open Mind getting the win.  The entry went off at odds of .70-1 and paid $3.40, $3.00, and $2.80.

 

1994 - Flanders and Serena’s Song battled neck and neck almost the entire way around the track with Serena's Song taking the lead at the top of the stretch.  Both fillies were trained by D. Wayne Lukas.  He told his riders to go at it and they certainly did. Flanders battled back on the rail with the urging of Pat Day. Flanders would win the Eclipse award after her win in the Juvenile Fillies. That would end up being her last race after sustaining two fractures. Serena’s Song went on to win over $3,000,000 and get inducted into the Hall of Fame.

 

 

1997 – A Patrick Byrne Sweep – Countess Diana and Favorite Trick won the Juvenile races in 1997 for trainer Patrick Byrne.  Both were awarded the Eclipse Awards for two year-olds. Favorite Trick also became the first two year-old to be named Horse of the Year since Secretariat.

 

2010 – From Calder to Churchill Downs:  Awesome Feather. Awesome Feather came to Churchill Downs riding a five race unbeaten streak at Calder Race Course for trainer Stanley Gold and rider Jeffrey Sanchez.  Awesome Feather went of as a 4.20-1 favorite. That unbeaten streak is still intact two years later as she heads into this year’s Ladies Classic with 10 wins. 

 

2011 – Stonestreet Magic Continues. My Miss Aurelia got another Breeders’ Cup win for Stonestreet Farms. Curlin won the Classic in 2007, but Rachel Alexandra never got a chance to run in the BC. My Miss Aurelia’s impressive stretch run against Grace Hall brought the magic back to Stonestreet.  In 2012 she looks to become the first winner of the Juvenile Fillies to win the Ladies Classic (Distaff).

 

Here a couple of links from earlier coverage of the race: