Idiomatic vanquishes Nest in gate-to-wire Spinster triumph

Lexington, Ky.

The gate-to-wire victory Sunday for Idiomatic in the Grade 1, $600,000 Spinster Stakes at Keeneland did not simply stamp her as the favorite to win the Breeders’ Cup Distaff next month at Santa Anita. It embossed the changing of the guard in the older-female division.

That was as much a result of Idiomatic’s 4 1/4-length victory at even money as it was how Eclipse Award winner Nest did not fire carrying odds of 4-5. Her fourth-place disappointment made her a beaten favorite for the third time in her last four races dating to the 2022 Distaff.

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“No excuse,” her jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. said. “No excuse. No excuse. No excuse.”

Nest literally is stumbling into the 2023 Breeders’ Cup. The 4-year-old Curlin filly whose three Grade 1 wins made her a champion last year did not break cleanly Sunday.

“She kind of bobbled there as they were getting ready to spring the latch,” said Jacob West, bloodstock agent for Nest’s lead owner Mike Repole. “She kind of charged the gate there, and then when they sprung the latch, it didn’t look like she had her feet up underneath her. She kind of missed the break there. For a filly that likes to be up near the pace or kind of up on it, her game plan got switched over to plan B, and there wasn’t really anything she could do from there.”

In international futures betting for the Distaff in less than four weeks, Nest has drifted to 5-1. Four-time Grade 1 winner Clairière, a 5-year-old also sired by Curlin, has lost her last two starts and is out to 12-1. Bob Baffert’s Grade 1 winner Adare Manor, who is by Uncle Mo and not Curlin, looms in California with a five-race winning streak, but she still can be had for 6-1.

Then there is Idiomatic, the 4-year-old filly who, yes, was sired by Curlin and spent seven months on trainer Brad Cox’s bench last year. She has graduated from being a wintertime, synthetic specialist to win four in a row on dirt, collecting her first Grade 1 victory Sunday and shortening into the 2-1 betting favorite for the Distaff on Nov. 4 at Santa Anita.

“It’s been a while since I won a Grade 1 at Keeneland,” said Cox, who had gone without since Caravel scored in the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. “Todd Pletcher has normally beat us.”

Not this time, even though bettors expected Pletcher to deliver again with Nest as he had Friday with Candied in the Alcibiades and with Locked in the Breeders’ Futurity on Saturday. Both were Grade 1s won by Gun Runner 2-year-olds owned by Aron Wellman’s Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners. Wellman also is one of the owners of Nest.

As she usually does, Idiomatic won from the front end. With Florent Géroux riding her for the fourth race in a row, the 4-year-old Juddmonte homebred raced to a 1 1/2-length lead through the first two furlongs of the 1 1/8-mile race. About to turn into a 12-24 mph, backstretch tailwind on a cloudy, 60-degree day, Idiomatic was clocked at 24.49 seconds.

Sixtythreecaliber (16-1) tried to keep up, but she began her fade after a half-mile in 48.31 seconds. Bellamore (25-1) took up the chase, but she was no match as Idiomatic eased through three-quarters of a mile in 1:12.24 and a mile in 1:36.82.

Le Da Vida (12-1), a 6-year-old who had been last of the six going around the first turn, was closing late. She never was going to catch Idiomatic, who finished with a time of 1:49.82. Le Da Vida was second followed in order by Bellamore, Nest, Sixtythreecaliber and Malloy (57-1).

“My filly just keeps on improving, and we know the distance is not a problem,” said Géroux, who won the 2016 Spinster with I’m a Chatterbox. “She just keeps improving, and Brad and his team had her at her prime again today.”

Now 11: 8-1-2 with $1,416,840 in earnings, Idiomatic’s last three victories came in the 1 3/16-mile Delaware Handicap (G2), in the slop of the 1 1/8-mile Personal Ensign (G1) and now the 1 1/8-mile Spinster.

The Distaff next month also is 1 1/8 miles, and it will be the 10th race in 11 months for Idiomatic.

“She’s a really good workhorse,” Cox said. “Coming into the spring we had a question mark about whether she would like the dirt or not. She ran well on it in the spring of her 3-year-old season with the one run.”

After beginning the year with three consecutive wins on the Tapeta track at Turfway Park, Cox decided to switch Idiomatic to the dirt May 6 for the Ruffian (G2), a one-turn mile at Belmont Park. Despite a distant, second-place finish that day, Cox stayed the course.

“It was a last-minute decision to try the Ruffian,” Cox said. “She ran a good race. Then we obviously got her back out around two turns, and she’s just been spot on ever since.”

Cox said he will ship Idiomatic to California the week of the Breeders’ Cup, keeping her at Churchill Downs for training between now and then. She and Adare Manor will have all the momentum going into the Distaff, a race that Cox won in 2018 and 2020 with Monomoy Girl.

Meanwhile, Nest will try, try again to find the momentum she enjoyed a year ago headed into the 2022 Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland.

“I kind of thought that maybe this would be what would take her forward into the next one,” West said. “But they’re horses. You don’t really know.”

With Ortiz a man of few words after the race and Pletcher already gone back to New York after his two earlier Grade 1 wins, West was left to speak on behalf of the team about whether Nest ran a race through which a line may be drawn.

“To me it is that,” he said, “but you’ve got to get her back to the barn and make sure she’s all in one piece and there’s no big holes that were missing or something. We wouldn’t think that would be the case. We’ll see.”