As the primary weekend in November arrives, you’d normally discover New York coach Rudy Rodriguez at a cold Belmont Park making ready his horses for races on the even colder and windier Aqueduct Racetrack.
This 12 months, November is beginning in a a lot totally different vogue for Rodriguez, one far-off from residence.
However he is not complaining.
On the morning of Nov. 1 at Del Mar, Rodriguez wore a smile as vivid because the Southern California sunshine as he walked by the barn space together with his prized 3-year-old filly, Bella Sofia , who will take on the biggest challenge of her young career Nov. 6 when she faces female sprint champion Gamine in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) at the track where the turf meets the surf.
“As long as you’re in the race, you have a chance,” Rodriguez said.
Whereas the 49-year-old Rodriguez has three unplaced Breeders’ Cup begins to his credit score, Bella Sofia represents his finest probability thus far for a victory on the World Championships.
Although he is certainly one of New York’s high trainers, with 10 New York Racing Affiliation meet titles to his credit score, the majority of his secure consists of allowance runners and claimers. He entered this 12 months with practically 1,200 profession wins since 2010 and the main coach on the 2020-21 Aqueduct winter meet, however his final graded stakes victory got here in 2017.
Then an obscurely bred, $20,000 filly named Bella Sofia entered his life this 12 months and gave him his fifth profession grade 1 winner.
“We attempt to take pleasure in each second,” Rodriguez mentioned. “Horses like her don’t come round too usually. We simply need to hold soaking it in. That is the second we work for all 12 months lengthy. Simply to compete within the Breeders’ Cup is a blessing.”
Although she’s a unusual and simply distracted filly who commanded appreciable work to get her to the races and Rodriguez’s regular arms on these events when he works or gallops the daughter of Awesome Patriot , Bella Sofia is also brilliantly fast.
From the opening quarter-mile on in her five career starts, she’s never been worse than second while registering four wins.
The last two of those five starts have been the gems, victories in the Longines Test Stakes (G1) for 3-year-old fillies and then the Gallant Bloom Handicap (G2) against older distaff foes by a combined margin of nearly eight lengths.
Bella Sofia draws off in the Test Stakes
Combined they made her the 5-2 second choice on the morning line behind Gamine (3-5), the 2020 Filly & Mare Sprint winner, as she faces five rivals while bidding to become the fourth straight 3-year-old to win the Filly & Mare Sprint.
“She been training good and she went to the paddock fine and had a good breeze Sunday (four furlongs in :48 2/5, the ninth fastest of 29 works), looking comfortable doing it,” Rodriguez said. “So far, so good. We’re happy to be here and hope she can give us another solid effort and we’ll take it from there.”
Part of the challenge for Bella Sofia involves racing outside of the Empire State, explaining why Rodriguez left his New York stable behind a week ago and traveled to California with his filly to prepare for the Breeders’ Cup.
“For Gamine, it’s another day in the park. She and Ce Ce (the 4-1 third choice) have raced all over the country. For us, it’s the first time she shipped. That’s why I wanted to get here early and get her used to everything here. It’s a big test for her and we want to be on the same page with everyone else.”
Judging by her purchase price alone, Bella Sofia would be among the most unlikely winners at the World Championships.
She was bought for that $20,000 price at the 2020 Ocala Breeders’ Sales July 2-Year-Olds and Horses of Racing Age Sale by bloodstock agents Nick Sallusto and Hanzly Albina out of Grassroots Training & Sales’ consignment for an evolving partnership that now includes Michael Imperio, Medallion Racing, Sofia Soares, Vincent Scuderi, and Parkland Thoroughbreds.
By Awesome Patriot, a stallion who stood for a $2,500 fee at Mapleton Thoroughbred Farm in Ohio in 2020, she is out of the Consolidator mare Love Contract, who has a yearling colt by V. E. Day . She is her dam’s third foal and third winner, yet the lone stakes winner.
With some luck Saturday, she might also become the first Breeders’ Cup winner for a fun-loving trainer who has paid his dues in the sport by enduring all of those frigid winters in New York and working as a jockey for 18 years.
“I couldn’t even describe how it would feel to win a Breeders’ Cup race,” Rodriguez said. “I’m just taking it day by day and enjoying everything out here. If it happens, I’ll think about it but for now I’m focused on bringing her to the race as good as I can.”
