Belmont at Aqueduct: Xigera steps up in Mother Goose

Xigera will look to make the grade in Saturday’s 66th running of the Grade 2, $250,000 Mother Goose, a nine-furlong route for sophomore fillies, at Belmont at the Big A.

Trained by Philip Bauer, the Nyquist dark bay has flashed talent on turf and dirt, taking the Tepin over the Ellis Park green in July and the Seneca Overnight last out on Sept. 23 over the Churchill Downs main track.

With Julien Leparoux aboard in the Seneca Overnight, Xigera tracked the early foot of She’s Lookin Lucky through splits of 48.07 seconds and 1:12.24 before making her bid near the quarter-pole and drawing off to a 6 1/4-length score in a final time of 1:41.92 to garner a career-best 98 Beyer Speed Figure from Daily Racing Form.

“She's always been the right temperament kind of filly to be a real good racehorse,” Bauer said. “She has a sharp edge to her, and it transfers over to her races. I tell people she has a short fuse. She's easy to deal with until that fuse is burnt. She's doing great and we're excited. She ships up this afternoon.”

Xigera posted a bullet breeze two works out from her Seneca score and has followed the same pattern into the Mother Goose, breezing a bullet five-eighths in 59.40 seconds on Oct. 13 ahead of an easy half-mile in 49 flat Sunday while preparing over the Churchill main track.

Bauer said the team flirted with shipping Xigera to Santa Anita for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff before landing on the Mother Goose.

“We made sure the work two out was a good one, and we were still trying to decide if we were going to fly out to California,” Bauer said. “We talked in circles about it and decided that maybe the best thing at the moment would be to get her a graded, black-type win if we can.”

A maiden winner at second asking last August over the Saratoga  turf, Xigera moved to the main track last October at Keeneland and was elevated to third in the Alcibiades (G1). The winner of that event, Wonder Wheel, went on to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Keeneland to secure champion 2-year-old filly honors, while Xigera tried her luck in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf but landed last of 14 after a troubled start.

Bauer entered Xigera in four straight turf starts from November through August, winning twice in Kentucky, before taking her back to dirt in the Seneca after an off-the-board effort over soft going in the Saratoga Oaks Invitational (G3).

“If she wins the Mother Goose, maybe I’ll be frustrated with myself for waiting as long as I did to try her back on the dirt, but she was a nice filly in her own right on the grass,” Bauer said. “When you win two grass races in a row and one of them in a stake as a 3-year-old, you'd almost call yourself crazy to try her on the dirt if she'd run bad.

“She's one of the favorites in the barn because she is one that takes her race anywhere and we're certainly excited to try,” added Bauer.

Leparoux retains the mount from post 6.

Katsumi Yoshida’s Defining Purpose earned Grade 1 glory in April at Keeneland with a 20-1 upset score in the Ashland when posting a prominent half-length score over Punchbowl, who was a neck better than returning rival Julia Shining.

Trained by Kenny McPeek, the Cross Traffic grey followed with a seventh-place finish in the Kentucky Oaks (G1) in May at Churchill Downs but redeemed herself off a two-month break by besting Black-Eyed Susan (G2) winner Taxed in the Indiana Oaks (G3).

Defining Purpose, out of the multiple stakes-winning Strong Hope mare Defining Hope, was subsequently third, defeated five lengths by the victorious Randomized, in the Alabama (G1) in August at the Spa and was last seen finishing a distant fifth in the Cotillion (G1) contested at 1 1/16 miles over a sloppy and sealed main track on Sept. 23 at Parx. She has trained since at Belmont Park, posting a pair of sharp works over the dirt training track.

She'll break from post 7 with Junior Alvarado riding.