Ascot rain enhances Breeders’ Cup possibilities for 4 horses

Rainy weather late this week at Ascot Racecourse in England already may have improved the forecast for deeper international fields for the turf races at the Breeders’ Cup in two weeks at Santa Anita.

Led by five-time Group 1 winner Inspiral, some horses who were pointed to Saturday’s British Champions day card are being diverted away from what is expected to be soft going for the climactic day of flat races in the U.K. Instead, they may finish their seasons on what is more likely to be firm ground Nov. 4 in California.

British Champions day is last chance for Breeders’ Cup.

“Sadly the weather has gone against us,” Chris Richardson, the managing director of Inspiral’s owner Cheveley Park Stud, told Racing Post. “It’s very frustrating she can’t run Saturday.”

Instead, the 4-year-old Frankel filly who won the one-mile Sun Chariot Stakes (G1) two weeks ago on good to firm ground at Newmarket, England, may be pre-entered for the 1 1/4-mile Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf.

“That will be the race to go for if she goes,” Inspiral’s co-trainer and five-time Breeders’ Cup winner John Gosden said on the podcast hosted by TV racing analyst Nick Luck.

That news shortened Inspiral to between a 2-1 and 11-4 favorite among bookmakers in Great Britain taking action on the Filly & Mare Turf, according to the U.K.-based market monitor Oddschecker.

Diverting horses across the Atlantic became a simmering topic when the weather forecast made it clear the ground at Ascot would have some give in it Saturday.

“It’s been spoken about quite a lot with regards to a few horses,” Racing Post writer Maddy Playle said on Horse Racing Nation’s Ron Flatter Racing Pod. “A lot of these are sort of progressive horses who are having their final throw of the dice, so to speak.”

The climactic British Champion Stakes (G1), a $1.58 million race that is a blockbuster event in its own right, is also a win-and-you’re-in for the $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf. Playle speculated that 5-year-old Bay Bridge, who won the Champion last year as a 10-1 long shot and is 5-1 to repeat, could yet be a Santa Anita possibility for his trainer.

“I wonder if Sir Michael Stoute could be interested in sending Bay Bridge over,” she said of the son of New Bay who is owned by James Wigan and Ballylinch Stud. “He’s an older horse who has had a break since his autumn campaign resumed.

Playle said the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (G1), a qualifier for the Breeders’ Cup Mile, might be the race to watch for candidates who could go to California. They include trainer Dermot Weld’s 3-year-old Tahiyra and John and Thady Gosden’s 4-year-old Nashwa, fillies who are second and third betting choices against males Saturday.

“We know that Nashwa is going to stay in training as a 5-year-old, and that’s absolutely fantastic, because she’s such an incredible filly,” Playle said. “Of course she came over to Keeneland last year to run (fourth) in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf behind Tuesday where, again, she was a little bit unlucky.

“Tahiyra, given how fast she is, I wonder if it could be an option. Her connections are already saying they are worried about soft conditions on Saturday.”

Playle also said QEII favorite Paddington could be a Breeders’ Cup candidate, although trainer Aidan O’Brien did not include him in his list of horses that he told At the Races TV were likely to go to Santa Anita.

The British Champion Fillies & Mares (G1) is not a Breeders’ Cup qualifier, but one of its products already is committed to facing males in the Breeders’ Cup Turf. She is just not a product of the race this year. Emily Upjohn, a 4-year-old daughter of Sea the Stars who won as the 3-1 favorite last year at Ascot, is skipping the race Saturday. Coming off a more than three-month break, she is being focused by the Gosdens on facing males in the Breeders’ Cup Turf.

“Emily Upjohn was defeated by Paddington in the Eclipse (G1),” Playle said. “She was very impressive on this day last year. She’s heading to the Breeders’ Cup. That’s why she’s not running here.”

Since there are only four Saturdays in October, Champions day falls two weeks before the Breeders’ Cup, so it will be a quick turnaround for those horses who try to do both. Pre-entries for the Breeders’ Cup are due Monday, not to mention an almost immediate quarantine before flying to America.