Flashback: When Very Subtle was anything but in the Breeders' Cup

Back in the early days of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, it was common for fast fillies and mares to compete against males. Where else could they run for a rich prize? The Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint wasn’t created until 2007, and similarly rich races were non-existent in the nascent filly and mare sprint division.

Besides, these fillies and mares were far from overmatched in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint as Very Subtle vividly demonstrated at Hollywood Park on Nov. 21, 1997.

For the most part, bettors didn’t believe anyone could lower the colors of Groovy, New York’s dominant male sprinter. Favored at 4-5, the 4-year-old was undefeated in six starts for the season and entered off a victory in the Vosburgh Stakes (G1). Competing exclusively in stakes races since his debut, he had set the pace in 22 of his 25 starts and loomed a formidable presence in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

But Very Subtle was likewise an accomplished speedster with a 7-for-8 record sprinting seven furlongs or less. A dominant winner of the Test Stakes (G2) at Saratoga, where she ran seven panels in 1:21 flat, Very Subtle had suffered her lone sprint defeat when facing older mares in the Aug. 31 Chicago Budweiser Breeders’ Cup Handicap. She entered the Breeders’ Cup off an 82-day layoff, and perhaps as a result, bettors disregarded her at 16-1.

Clearly, they underestimated Very Subtle’s blinding speed. Freshened by her time on the sidelines, she ran a hole in the wind.

Dick Jerardi, writing for the Philadelphia Daily News, foreshadowed the outcome on Nov. 11 when he wrote, “Drag-racing lovers will be appeased early — and quickly. Groovy…will get the test of his life. Groovy wins with his early speed, and the Sprint might have more speed than any race in history… Don’t blink or you certainly will miss this race.”

As it turned out, Groovy blinked at the start. The favorite broke a half-step slowly from the rail, and in that split second, Very Subtle seized her opportunity. Under urging from jockey Patrick Valenzuela, the filly broke running from post 11 and set off in search of the lead. She was hardly alone in her mission — the mare Pine Tree Lane, runner-up in the 1986 Breeders’ Cup Sprint, was also fighting hard to set the pace, while Groovy was rushing back into contention along the inside.

Together, the three sensational sprinters dashed the opening quarter-mile in a blazing :21 1/5 seconds, opening up 2 ½ lengths on their pursuers. For a brief moment they raced as a team, three across the track, straining in a battle for supremacy of speed.

Then Very Subtle told her rivals goodbye.

Rounding the turn, Very Subtle cruised to the front with such authority that Valenzuela felt compelled to take his foot off the gas and give the filly a breather. Groovy, give him credit, tried his best to stay in touch under vigorous urging, but at the top of the stretch he was clearly fighting a lost cause. Very Subtle was thoroughly in command and simply waiting for her cue to accelerate again.

At the top of the stretch, Valenzuela asked Very Subtle to run, again. A half-mile in :44 flat couldn’t faze her, nor could five furlongs in :55 4/5. Coming down the stretch she was 3 ½ lengths in front, alone and unchallenged, and when she crossed the wire in 1:08 4/5 she had four lengths on Groovy and a lot more on the rest. Quipped writer Jennie Rees in Louisville’s The Courier-Journal of Nov. 22, “Things were groovy for those betting against the favorite in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint.”

Winning trainer Mel Stute praised Valenzuela’s ride and overall skills as a jockey. “This is a wonderful thing,” said Stute in The Boston Globe of Nov. 22, 1987. “I left the strategy up to Pat. I think any time you ride him, you already have a 1-length advantage.”

With her resounding victory at Hollywood Park, Very Subtle became the first filly or mare to win the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, but she wouldn’t be the last. Safely Kept (1990) and Desert Stormer (1995) followed suit, while Meafara (1992 and 1993), Soviet Problem (1994), Honest Lady (2000), and Xtra Heat (2001) joined Pine Tree Lane with runner-up efforts in North America’s most prestigious sprint.

The Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint is an exciting race in its own right. But as Very Subtle helped demonstrate, fast fillies and mares never needed their own event to shine on racing’s biggest stage.

J. Keeler Johnson is a writer, videographer, handicapper, and all-around horse racing enthusiast. A great fan of racing history, he considers Dr. Fager to be the greatest racehorse ever produced in America, but counts Zenyatta as his all-time favorite. You can follow him on Twitter at @J_Keelerman.