'No downside' to Breeders' Cup bid for Romantic Vision

Trainer Rusty Arnold never has been to Del Mar, site of this year’s Breeders’ Cup World Championships on Nov. 3-4.

“I have been to a lot of tracks … been to Hollywood Park and Santa Anita, but never to Del Mar because I am always at Saratoga when they run and have been since 1982,” Arnold said.

That could change in a few weeks after Romantic Vision’s two-length victory in Sunday’s Juddmonte Spinster (G1), which earned the G. Watts Humphrey homebred a fees-paid berth into the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1) on Nov. 3.

“Mr. Humphrey will take a day or two and see how she’s doing,” said Arnold, who won the 1997 Juddmonte Spinster with Clear Mandate for Humphrey. “He will weigh the plusses and minuses and make a decision. My inclination is that she will (go to the Breeders’ Cup). There is a lot of upside and no downside.

“If she had run second and been beaten nose, I know what the decision would be: the Falls City,” Arnold continued, referring to the $200,000 Grade 2 race on Nov. 23 at Churchill Downs. “Whatever her next race is will be her last. The only question is where. Until yesterday, we already had a game plan for the seven weeks until the Falls City.”

Sunday’s victory over a sloppy track was the second huge effort of 2017 on an off track for Romantic Vision, who was second in the La Troienne (G1) at Churchill in May.

“I know there is not much chance of an off track at Del Mar, but she has run well on fast tracks,” Arnold said. “She won here in the spring on a fast track and the Locust Grove (G3) she won at Churchill was fast.

“The only bad race she ran was the Fleur de Lis (G2 at Churchill in June) and I don’t know why. She got beat 17 lengths and the rider (Julien Leparoux) said going into the first turn that her mind was not in it. The only possible thing I can think of was that it was night racing. Maybe that was it.”

After the Fleur de Lis, Romantic Vision finished last in the Summer Colony at Saratoga.

“In her race at Saratoga, she fell on her head leaving the gate and when Javier (Castellano) got her straightened up, she was six or seven lengths behind the last horse,” Arnold said. “After that, Javier just took care of her.”

SOURCE: Keeneland release