1 in, 1 out: Summers takes different tacks for Breeders’ Cup

Chad Summers is opting out of the Breeders’ Cup with Napoleon Solo, who will prepare for a 3-year-old campaign, and opting in with Dry Powder.

Dry Powder, a 3-year-old Gun Runner filly, is pointed to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff after finishing second by a neck to Clicquot in the Grade 1 Cotillion on Sept. 20.

Unraced as a 2-year-old, she has a 6: 2-3-1 record this year for owner Gold Square. She won the listed Cathryn Sophia Stakes in August and was third in the Coaching Club American Oaks (G1) after hitting the gate at the start.

“She's a special filly,” Summers told Horse Racing Nation. “We've loved her from the beginning and, you know, similar to what we're doing with Napoleon, she wasn't ready to be a 2-year-old. We breezed her handful of times and she hinted at a lot of promise. … We just thought she would be better as a 3-year-old. She didn't have anything wrong with her. We just thought she just needed to grow up a little bit. …

“When she joined us at Palm Meadows over the wintertime, everything we wanted her to turn into, she had turned into. And she just keeps getting better and better. And I don't think we've seen the best of her yet.”

Summers’s only other Breeders’ Cup runner was Mind Your Biscuits, who was second in the 2016 Sprint, third in the 2017 Sprint and 11th in the 2018 Classic.

How Dry Powder is coming into the Breeders’ Cup “is eerily similar to how Mind Your Biscuits was going into his first Breeders' Cup in Santa Anita off a second in the Gallant Bob. She's running a very close second in the Cotillion. I don't think she's done anything wrong.”

He knows the Distaff will be a step up. “Obviously, look, it's a strong race this year. Even if Torpedo Anna doesn't come, you have the two Bob Baffert horses with the home-court advantage once again for the third straight year with the Breeders' Cup being in California. But we feel like we're going in there with a filly on the rise.”

Dry Powder will ship to California on Oct. 18 and probably breeze on the Thursday or Friday before the race.

“She likes her pony,” Summers said. “She'll go with the pony every day out in California as well. She's a filly that likes her job, and she knows her job. And when she's done, leave her alone.

“She doesn't really like to be fussed with too much. She'll take a peppermint from you, and then she's done with you. Come see her later. You have two peppermints, she'll deal with two peppermints. But don't try and get too cute. She likes her neck scratches. But she's all racehorse. She's very much all business. …

“She trains differently than most two-turn route fillies. We train her a little bit more like a sprinter, but that's what she seems to enjoy. She knows what she likes. It's enjoyable working with horses who are very honest and kind of tell you what they like and don't like."

For Napoleon Solo, it was a matter of timing and distance.

In Saturday’s Grade 1 Champagne, the Liam's Map colt led at every call, setting fractions of 22.53 seconds, 44.24, 1:07.88, 1:20.90 and a final time of 1:34.57 for the one-mile race and winning by 6 1/2 lengths.

“We just kind of looked at how hard and how fast he ran and unfortunately having to ship across the country once again, it kind of takes away from what the Breeders' Cup was, where it used to rotate every year,” Summers said.

“We just don't feel like it's in his best interest right now. I mean, we have a lot of respect for the Breeders' Cup, and it would mean the world to us to win the Breeders' Cup and try and be champion 2-year-old. But to have an effort like that and get on a plane in 10 days and ship across the country and have to duplicate that effort and then ship back across the country, at this stage, we've elected not to do that.”

Napoleon Solo, also owned by Gold Square, stepped up for the Champagne after a 5 1/4-length debut in a maiden special weight at Saratoga in August. Summers figured it was his best option.

“If we didn't run in the Hopeful, there wasn't really anywhere else to run them. New York hasn't written an allowance race yet, unfortunately. We're in October. There's not an allowance race to run in. There's not another stakes race to run in at a lower grade. So it was either run in the Hopeful or wait for (the Champagne). And so we just kind of elected to wait for this.

Then there was the competition. “There were a couple of stakes-placed horses in the race. But really, if you look at it, it was just everybody had won one race,” Summers said. “So a pretty level playing field. Obviously, you're running against a horse that was placed in the Hopeful and the Sapling and some very impressive maiden winners for Kenny McPeek and Danny Gargan. Obviously, Tom Amoss, of course, came in with all the buzz (with It's Our Time), so it was certainly a serious race. But really, where else would you go?”

The next step is to get Napoleon Solo ready for next year. “We've seen all we need to see from him this year. I think he duplicated his maiden race and ran even faster and stronger and harder.”