Caravel Primed for Repeat in Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint

Since upending last year’s Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1T) at 42-1, Caravel  has lost little momentum.

The 6-year-old daughter of Mizzen Mast owned by Qatar Racing, Marc Detampel, and Madaket Stables followed her Breeders’ Cup score with three consecutive stakes victories that included the six-furlong Jaipur Stakes (G1T) at Belmont Park. The Jaipur earned the mare a return trip to the World Championships as a Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series: Win and You’re In event, which gives the winner a paid berth in the Turf Sprint.

A year ago, Caravel used a victory in the Franklin Stakes (G3T) at Keeneland as a springboard into the Breeders’ Cup, which was hosted by Keeneland. This year she comes into the Turf Sprint off a couple of losses but only one real bobble caused primarily by a soft turf at Saratoga Race Course. She ran fourth in the Aug. 5 Troy Stakes (G3T) and simply didn’t travel well in the spongy going, according to trainer Brad Cox.

 “The race at Saratoga was a complete throw-out, she hated the turf course,” he said. “Her last two runs were over courses I don’t think she was comfortable with.”

After the Troy, Cox sent her back to Keeneland, where she had a 3-for-3 record, all in graded stakes, for another go in the Oct. 15 Franklin Stakes. On a course labeled good Caravel hooked up with a gritty 5-year-old daughter of Cairo Prince   named Tony Ann  and slugged it out for the last sixteenth. Tony Ann prevailed by a neck.

“I like how she’s doing,” Cox said of Caravel Oct 27. “She is still aggressive in her training, works good, and her races have been good. As long as we get a firm turf course and she breaks well, I think she can get back in the win column.”

Caravel faces Tony Ann again in the Breeders’ Cup with her rival sporting a better record on the West Coast. Trained by Philip D’Amato and owned by A Venneri Racing and Anthony Fanticola, Tony Ann has two wins and a third out of four starts at Santa Anita Park and additional two wins at Del Mar.

Tony Ann has never been off the board in three starts at the Turf Sprint’s distance of five furlongs, while Caravel has won four of six starts at the distance. Caravel, however, has only run out West once when she was 12th in the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar.

D’Amato and Fanticola have another dangerous contender in the Turf Sprint with Motorious , a gelded son of Muhaarar  who was acquired in late 2021. He has thrived with D’Amato, having never finished off the board in eight starts. His 4-3-1 record since the start of 2022 included two wins, two seconds, and third at Santa Anita. Motorious earned a spot in the Turf Sprint by winning the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series Green Flash Handicap (G3T) at Del Mar.

European challengers in the Turf Sprint could include Steve and Jolene de’Lemos’ Irish-bred Live In The Dream  who won the Nunthorpe Stakes (G1) at York Aug. 25 and comes into the Breeders’ Cup off a fourth in the 5 1/2-furlong Woodford Stakes (G2T) at Keeneland Oct. 7. The gelded son of Prince of Lir  is trained by Adam West.