BC Juvenile Likely to Impact Championship Honors

The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) has been a championship-defining race because it started in 1984, with its victors finally incomes Eclipse Awards in 29 of the 37 years. As well as, six straight Juvenile winners grew to become champions, a priceless prize for a horse, however particularly for a 2-year-old colt, whose stud worth rises with the achievement.

With this yr’s main contenders carrying related {qualifications}, the results of the $2 million TVG Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Offered by Thoroughbred Aftercare at Del Mar Nov. 5 once more appears more likely to tip the scales in victor’s favor. The 1 1/16-mile race is a key measuring stick in a division that has had few head-to-head conferences amongst its divisional leaders.

Entrants Corniche , 9-5 favorite Jack Christopher , and Pinehurst  are all grade 1 winners, but strangers to each other’s racing company. Corniche and Pinehurst are California-based stablemates from the barn of Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert but have never lined up in a race against one another. Meanwhile, Jack Christopher recorded his black-type victories in New York.

Pinehurst, who races for the Golconda Secure, Madaket Stables, SF Racing, Siena Farm, Starlight Racing, Stonestreet Stables, Waves Edge Capital, Catherine Donovan, Robert Masterson, and Jay Schoenfarber, is also 2-for-2, although with out the route expertise. Each of his wins got here at Del Mar this summer time, an Aug. 1 maiden race earlier than the Sept. 6 Runhappy Del Mar Futurity (G1) at seven furlongs.

Each horses had been expensive public sale buys—Corniche a $1.5 million acquisition from the de Meric Gross sales consignment at this yr’s Ocala Breeders’ Gross sales Spring Sale of 2-Yr-Olds in Coaching and Pinehurst a $385,000 purchase from the Woods Edge Farm consignment eventually yr’s September Yearling Sale at Keeneland.

Baffert is a four-time winner of the Juvenile and is the second-winningest coach of all-time on the Breeders’ Cup (17 wins), trailing solely D. Wayne Lukas (20). This yr, he’s beneath scrutiny after Medina Spirit  showed the prohibited race day presence of betamethasone in winning the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) at Churchill Downs earlier this yr.

As a situation for his Breeders’ Cup participation in 2021, following 5 of his trainees having optimistic drug checks in a yr, his secure will endure unprecedented Breeders’ Cup screening and testing.

The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile supplies qualifying factors on a 20-8-4-2 scale on the Street to the Kentucky Derby, highest of any race within the collection run but this fall, although Baffert trainees are ineligible for factors, with the Corridor of Fame coach at present barred from taking part there via mid-2023.

Chad Brown, third behind Baffert and Lukas with 15 Breeders’ Cup victories, brings Jack Christopher to Friday’s race, with the coach searching for to duplicate the consequence from the final time the Breeders’ Cup was at Del Mar in 2017. That yr, e 5 Racing Thoroughbreds and Stonestreet Stables Good Magic   triumphed in the Juvenile, defeating the Baffert-trained Solomini  .

Jack Christopher, perfect in two starts, just like this year’s Baffert trainees, also exits the same Breeders’ Cup prep as Good Magic: the one-mile Champagne Stakes (G1) at Belmont Park. Whereas Good Magic was second in that race, Jack Christopher did one higher, successful by 2 3/4 lengths over fellow Juvenile participant and maiden Commandperformance .

It is the latter, a Union Rags   colt owned by Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable, whose form most resembles that of Good Magic when he came to Del Mar, having been second in both of his starts, topped by a Champagne runner-up finish.

His trainer, Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, has won 11 Breeders’ Cup races, including two runnings of the Juvenile. He first took the race with Uncle Mo   in 2010, followed two years later by Shanghai Bobby . Both colts were Champagne winners that with their Juvenile victories capped unbeaten freshmen campaigns.

What Jack Christopher and Commandperformance lack is two-turn experience. Two-turn routing proved a stumbling block for some recent Champagne winners, including last year’s victor, Jackie’s Warrior .

The son of Munnings   out of the Half Ours   mare Rushin No Blushin  showed Brown immediate promise when he first breezed him this summer.

His talent was apparent to others after his debut, which he won by 8 3/4 lengths at Saratoga Race Course Aug. 28.  Between that race and the Champagne, Coolmore and Peter Brant secured an curiosity within the colt with unique house owners Jim Bakke and Gerald Isbister.