Bessarabian Stakes 2021: Odds, pace projection, preview, more
The post-Breeders’ Cup portion of the 2021 racing season continues Saturday with a Grade 2 sprint north of the U.S.-Canada border.
Mark Casse trains Our Secret Agent, the 2-1 morning-line favorite for the Grade 2, $175,000 (about U.S. $139,000) Bessarabian Stakes. Post time from Woodbine is 4:26 p.m. EST, with TVG to show the seven-furlong sprint on the all-weather track for fillies and mares.
Click here for Woodbine entries and results.
Our Secret Agent made three of her first four career starts at Churchill Downs but each of her last 10 races have come at Woodbine. The 4-year-old Secret Circle filly carries a lifetime record of 14: 3-6-4 with $277,364 earned for owner Gary Barber.
Last out, Our Secret Agent scored under a strong drive at 6½ furlongs in the local Hendrie Stakes (G3) on Oct. 23. Jockey Kazushi Kimura stays aboard Saturday.
Casse also conditions La Libertee (12-1), who followed a Woodbine allowance win with a third-place finish in the Hendrie.
So far this season, the Canadian and U.S. Hall of Fame conditioner Casse has earned 17 graded stakes scores. Highlights of his year include Got Stormy’s Fourstardave Handicap (G1) triumph at Saratoga and wins by Helium in the Tampa Bay Derby (G2) and Pappacap in Del Mar’s Best Pal Stakes (G2).
Trainer Josie Carroll has won the Bessarabian Stakes three times, including in both 2017 and ’18 with Moonlit Promise. She enters Gidgetta (3-1), who steps up into Grade 2 flight after winning a Santa Anita allowance event Oct. 8.
Lady Speightspeare (4-1) went 2-for-2 in 2020, including a Natalma Stakes (G1) victory for trainer Roger Attfield. After nearly 12 months out of the starting gates, the Grade 1 winner took a Woodbine allowance race Sept. 6 and returns to stakes company Saturday.
Here is a look at the field for the 2021 Bessarabian Stakes (trainer and jockey in parentheses) with morning-line odds:
1. Gidgetta (Josie Carroll, Patrick Husbands), 3-1
2. La Libertee (Mark Casse, Rafael Manuel Hernandez), 12-1
3. Spun Glass (Michael Trombetta, Luis Contreras), 15-1
4. Lady Speightspeare (Roger Attfield, Emma-Jayne Wilson), 4-1
5. Aug Lutes (Michael Trombetta, Antonio Gallardo), 8-1
6. Juxtapose (Steven Owens, Gary Boulanger), 20-1
7. Our Secret Agent (Mark Casse, Kazushi Kimura), 2-1
8. Emmeline (John Mattine, Justin Stein), 20-1
9. Tuned (Graham Motion, Daisuke Fukumoto), 6-1
TimeformUS’ pace projections show Spun Glass going out to an early lead under jockey Luis Contreras, followed by Emmeline. Favorite Our Secret Agent is expected to run near the back of the field in the early going.
Other Saturday stakes
Here is a look at other stakes races taking place Saturday across North America. All post times are EST.
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3:43 p.m. – $150,000 Artie Schiller Stakes, 3-and-up, one mile (turf), Aqueduct
Tell Your Daddy (3-1) drops in class after running second Oct. 9 in the Keeneland Turf Mile (G1) at 29-1 odds. Tom Morley trains the 5-year-old Scat Daddy gelding, a Grade 2 winner who will have the services of jockey John Velazquez. Chad Brown trains Flavius (7-2), a three-time stakes winner aiming to bounce back from a fifth-place effort in Kentucky Downs’ Mint Million Stakes (G3). Aqueduct stakes victor Our Last Buck (5-2) is a main-track-only entrant for trainer Michelle Nevin.
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3:56 p.m. – $150,000 (about U.S. $119,000) Maple Leaf Stakes (G3), 3-and-up fillies and mares, 1¼ miles (all-weather), Woodbine, TVG
Merveilleux (3-1) looks for a better result than the 10th-place finish she recorded Oct. 17 at Woodbine in the E.P. Taylor Stakes (G1). Kevin Attard trains the 4-year-old Paynter filly, a two-time stakes winner who will have jockey Justin Stein up Saturday. Mark Casse trains Skygaze (7-2), second last out in the local Ontario Matron Stakes (G3). Casse also conditions Broadway Lady (4-1), who makes a stakes debut after winning a Woodbine allowance race in her last start.
5:36 p.m. – $300,000 Dream Supreme Stakes, 3-and-up fillies and mares, six furlongs, Churchill Downs, FS2
Bell’s the One (7-5) renews her rivalry with Sconsin (9-5) after both bypassed the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint to stay home for this race. Neil Pessin trains Bell’s the One, a Grade 1 winner who defeated Sconsin in June at Churchill in the Roxelana Overnight Stakes. Jockey Corey Lanerie rides the 5-year-old Majesticperfection mare. Greg Foley conditions Sconsin, a Grade 2 heroine who beat Bell’s the One two months ago in the local Open Mind Stakes. Jockey Tyler Gaffalione gets the call on the 4-year-old Include filly.
Related: Elle Z, Sconsin among post-BC horses to watch |
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7 p.m. – $100,000 Desi Arnaz Stakes, 2-year-old fillies, 6½ furlongs, Del Mar, TVG
Eda (3-5) aims for back-to-back stakes scores for trainer Bob Baffert after taking Santa Anita’s Anoakia Stakes on Oct. 24. Jockey Flavien Prat gets a leg up on the 2-year-old Munnings filly, second over this Del Mar track in the Sorrento Stakes (G2). Baffert also trains Under the Stars (5-2), who was third on debut at Santa Anita and makes her second start here. Lady T (7-2) was second to Eda in the Anoakia for trainer John Shirreffs.
Bessarabian preview
From Woodbine’s communications department:
Juxtapose, a 4-year-old daughter of Verrazano, goes after her first added-money win in Saturday’s Grade 2, $175,000 (about U.S. $139,000) Bessarabian Stakes at Woodbine.
The seven-furlong main track feature for fillies and mares, 3-years-old and upward, has drawn nine starters, including Juxtapose.
Trained by Steve Owens, the Kentucky-bred heads into her second straight stakes date after notching a third in the Ontario Matron (G3) on Oct. 10 at Woodbine.
That effort came after a seven-furlong grass win, the sixth victory of her career, Aug. 22 at Woodbine.
Sent off at 8-1, Juxtapose rallied from fourth at the stretch call to claim a head score over firm going on the E.P. Taylor Turf Course.
The dark bay brings a record of 6-0-3 from 13 starts into the Bessarabian for owners James Redekop and Stefan Ferrario.
“Juxtapose, she’s a nice little filly who tries hard every race,” Owens said. “She’s a little difficult to train, but she gives 110 percent every time we take her out there in the afternoon.”
Bred by Alvin D. Haynes Estate, Juxtapose debuted Oct. 5, 2019, finishing sixth in a 5½-furlong sprint over the Toronto oval’s main track.
Two weeks later, she broke her maiden, the start of a three-race win streak.
“She’s always been a very consistent horse,” Owens said. “She’s very aggressive in the morning, but she’s all business when the gate opens.”
Last year, she went 2-0-2 from six starts. In 2021, she’s 2-0-1 from four appearances.
Owens, closing in on 300 career wins, has a good idea of what to expect from Juxtapose in the Bessarabian.
“She’s a little better, I feel, on the turf, but she’ll run on broken glass,” Owens said. “She does whatever you need her to do out there.”
If recent patterns are any indication of what’s in store for Juxtapose on Saturday, Owens will no doubt be encouraged.
In her last seven starts, she’s finished third, first, fifth, first, fifth, first and third, respectively.
“If that’s the pattern, we really do (have something to look forward to),” Owens said. “She’s at a good distance. She’s cutting back from a mile-and-a-sixteenth and she had a really lovely work on the weekend, 48 (seconds), out in a minute and one-fifth. She had a really nice work two weeks ago that set her up for that one, 59 (seconds) and change, and galloped out in 1:12.1. So, she’s coming into the race in the right condition.”
Trainer Roger Attfield and Kinghaven Farms teamed to win the first two editions of the Bessarabian – in 1985 with Summer Mood and one year later with Playlist.
Conditioner Josie Carroll has won three runnings of the Bessarabian, including in 2017 and 2018, both with Moonlit Promise. She also won with Smart Surprise in 2008 and sends out Gidgetta this year.
The race is named after Canada’s champion older female of 1986, a multiple stakes winning daughter of Vice Regent trained by Michael Doyle and owned by Eaton Hall Farm. She finished her racing career with an 18-5-4 mark from 37 starts.