Spanish Mission Back in U.S. for Turf Trinity Finale

Of the three 3-year-olds in the $1 million Jockey Club Derby Invitational Stakes coming off overseas starts, at least one of them fits into an atypical mold.

While Spanish Mission has raced strictly in Great Britain and has an English trainer and rider—David Simcock and Jamie Spencer—he was bred in Kentucky and has American owners in Team Valor and Earle Mack.

The son of Noble Mission  also has a penchant for sunshine and firm turf as opposed to the bog that sometimes awaits runners in Europe. 

"He's not your usual European because he does not like soft going," said Barry Irwin, Team Valor's founder and CEO. 

With rain already in the forecast this week for Belmont Park, Irwin is hoping the tentacles of Hurricane Dorian do not complicate matters even more Sept. 7 when nine 3-year-olds will close out the New York Racing Association's first Turf Trinity series with the initial 1 1/2-mile Jockey Club Derby, a Breeders' Cup Challenge series event, on the Elmont, N.Y., track's Widener turf course.

"There's rain in the forecast for a couple days, and who knows if Dorian will come up the coast. Long Island is up the coast," Irwin said. "The weather is our big concern. The horse versus the competition and the conditions, we feel very good about that."

In shipping Spanish Mission back home to America, the owners opted for the Jockey Club Derby and the prospect of firm turf over a possible start in the prestigious St. Leger Stakes (G1) at Doncaster. 

What they'll find at Belmont Park, besides a strong chance of sunshine Saturday, is a test that should suit their colt. By the same Lane's End stallion who produced Code of Honor, last month's winner of the 1 1/4-mile Runhappy Travers Stakes (G1), Spanish Mission has already raced twice this year at distances of 12 furlongs or more on turf and collected a group 3 stakes win in one of them.

That win came two starts back in the manner of a four-length score in the 1 5/8-mile Bahrain Trophy (G3) at Newmarket. In his most recent start, the son of the Street Cry mare Limonar bred in Kentucky by St. Elias Stables finished third—just a neck and a head behind—in the 1 1/2-mile Qatar Gordon Stakes (G3) at Goodwood Aug. 1.

"Even though he has run a mile and a half and more, he's a versatile horse," Irwin said. "When he won his last race, (Spencer) told us, 'Don't just think he's a stayer. Today it wouldn't have mattered what the distance was.'"

Spanish Mission, a winner of two of six starts, is part of a European contingent that also includes Pedro Cara, a son of Pedro the Great trained by Mauricio Delcher who won a French stakes at 1 1/2 miles in his previous start, and San Huberto, a Speightstown  colt trained by Fabrice Chappet who prevailed in a 1 3/4-mile Deauville stakes last time out. Irwin believes the overseas travelers will have an edge in conditioning over their American rivals.

"You can train a horse and run a horse harder in Europe and have the horse come back in one piece than you can in America," Irwin said. "Here you try to keep him so fit you don't have to train him that hard in the morning. You want the fitness to come from the race. In Europe it's the opposite, and that gives them better conditioning for the race."

Spanish Mission was originally acquired for $125,000 by Lynch Bloodstock through the Lane's End consignment at the 2017 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, and Irwin bought him privately for the Team Valor partnership after he broke his maiden at Chelmsford in his second and final start at 2. He then sold a share to Mack.

Though a victory in the Jockey Club Derby could net Spanish Mission a free spot in the Longines Breeders' Cup Turf (G1T) through the Breeders' Cup's "Win and You're In" provisions, Irwin said the 3-year-old will return to Europe after Saturday's race and that the long-range goal for him is a start in the Melbourne Cup (G1), a two-mile turf stakes in Australia with a value of about $6 million, in another year or two.

"With horses by Noble Mission, most of them look like the older they get, the better they will get. This trainer has been telling me from day one that no matter what he does this year, Spanish Mission will be better next year and even better the year after that," Irwin said. "We're looking at a horse we can campaign until he's at least 5 with that big race in Australia in mind. One of our plans is that we hope he can be a Melbourne Cup horse, which is a race Earle and I would love to win. Ideally, he could run in it at 5 or 6, but if he continues to improve, he could do it next year."

With separate winners of the Belmont Derby Invitational Stakes (G1T) and the Saratoga Derby Invitational Stakes in the first two legs of the series, there will not be a Triple Crown winner in year one, but the series finale still packs some punch with the winners of those two races in the starting gate.

Bloom Racing Stable's Henley's Joy, who won the 1 1/4-mile Belmont Derby, and Leonard Green's A Thread of Blue, a frontrunning one-length victor in the 1 3/16-mile Saratoga Derby, will clash again Saturday, with A Thread of Blue's connections also checking the skies above for sunshine.

A Thread of Blue, who skipped the Belmont Derby, has finished first or second in five of his past seven starts. Those five starts were on firm turf, and the others were on yielding. 

"They weren't terrible," trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said about a fourth in the Penn Mile Stakes (G2T) and a third in the Awad Stakes, "but they weren't his best races. We hope it stays firm without too much rain so it's not so bad. What's good is that it's a fresh new course with the Belmont meeting starting (Sept. 6), so that helps. It should be a good course, even if there's some give."

A boost to A Thread of Blue's chances should come from breaking from the rail under jockey Luis Saez and having enough speed that there's the possibly of an uncontested lead in a race for the son of Hard Spun .

"Hopefully it works out in our favor that there's not a lot of speed. An uncontested lead is always better than going head-to-head with someone. Any way it happens, it's going to be tough to get a mile and a half," McLaughlin said about a colt bought for $430,000 from the Niall Brennan Stables consignment at the 2018 Ocala Breeders' Sales March 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale.

"He's put in three works since the (Aug. 4) Saratoga race, and he's been flying in them. He's feeling great. The question mark is the mile and a half, but we were questioning the mile and three-sixteenths, too, so we're hopeful."

While plans beyond Saturday's race are uncertain, McLaughlin said a free spot in the Breeders' Cup Turf would be a "nice perk" for the connections of the winner.

"You don't have to go," he said about the $4 million, 1 1/2-mile race against older rivals at Santa Anita Park Nov. 2. "But it's a nice bonus and helpful because it's a great event and it can be expensive," McLaughlin said.

Henley's Joy, a son of Kitten's Joy , recorded a three-quarter-length victory in the Belmont Derby while racing in third in the early stages. A month later in the Saratoga Derby, he was ninth early on A Thread of Blue carved out fractions slower than the ones posted by Moon Colony in the grade 1 stakes (:48.54 and 1:12.32 at Saratoga compared to :47.80 and 1:11.60 in the Belmont Derby).

Henley's Joy and jockey Jose Lezcano drew post 3. Spanish Mission landed post 9 with Spencer, who captured the 2016 Belmont Derby with Deauville.

The field also includes Klaravich Stables' Digital Age, who was second in the Saratoga Derby and fourth in the Belmont Derby for trainer Chad Brown, and L and N Racing's Tone Broke, winner of the final two legs of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Canadian Triple Crown, the Breeders' Stakes and the Prince of Wales Stakes, for trainer Steve Asmussen.

Entries: Jockey Club Derby Invitational S.

Belmont Park, Saturday, September 07, 2019, Race 10

• STK
• 1 1/2m
• Turf
• $1,000,000
• 3 yo
• 5:47 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1A Thread of Blue (KY)	Luis Saez	122	Kiaran P. McLaughlin	4/1
2	2Current (KY)	Junior Alvarado	122	Todd A. Pletcher	15/1
3	3Henley's Joy (KY)	Jose Lezcano	122	Michael J. Maker	5/1
4	4Pedro Cara (FR)	Tony Piccone	122	Mauricio Delcher	12/1
5	5San Huberto (IRE)	Flavien Prat	122	Fabrice Chappet	10/1
6	6Tone Broke (ON)	John R. Velazquez	122	Steven M. Asmussen	10/1
7	7Kadar (KY)	Manuel Franco	122	Michael J. Maker	15/1
8	8Digital Age (IRE)	Javier Castellano	122	Chad C. Brown	5/2
9	9Spanish Mission (KY)	Jamie P. Spencer	122	David Simcock	3/1