Zipessa breezes for Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf 2017
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Empyrean Stables’ Zipessa, who earned a return trip to the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1) with a victory in the First Lady (G1) here Oct. 7, began her preparations for the Nov. 4 race at Del Mar with a half-mile breeze in :48.60 on Keeneland’s 5-furlong all-weather training track Saturday.
“She can get wound up and for her first work back I wanted to use the training track because it is nice and quiet,” trainer Mike Stidham said. “For her final work here next week, it will be on the turf.”
Zipessa, who is scheduled to ship to Del Mar on Oct. 30 for the 1 1/8-mile Breeders’ Cup race, had her two works prior to the First Lady over the all-weather Tapeta surface at Fair Hill training center in Maryland.
Fifth in last year’s Breeders’ Cup at 1¼ miles as a 53-1 shot at Santa Anita, Zipessa returns to a Del Mar surface on which she won an allowance race in 2015 and finished eighth in the Del Mar Oaks (G1) at 1 1/8 miles.
Stidham hopes to have a second Breeders’ Cup starter in Speedway Stable’s Moon Dash.
Second by a nose in the Surfer Girl on Oct. 9 at Santa Anita, Moon Dash worked a half-mile on the turf at Keeneland Sunday morning in :51.20 with jockey Florent Geroux aboard.
Moon Dash is expected to be pre-entered for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1), which is limited to 14 starters. The race might be oversubscribed at pre-entry, leaving the makeup of the field in the hands of a selection panel.
Source: Keeneland Association
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