Bell's the One First Breeders' Cup Starter for Pessin

Neil Pessin worked on the racetrack one summer during his college years, when he was on the pre-vet track planning to follow in the footsteps of his father, the late Arnold Pessin.

"Dad told me to get it out of my system before I went to vet school. I'm still working on it," quipped Pessin, who took out his trainer's license in 1985 and is still at it at 61. "It's almost out, but not quite."

Pessin will saddle his first Breeders' Cup contender Nov. 7 at Keeneland, when he points his beloved Bell's the One to the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1). The Majesticperfection filly also gave the Lexington native his first grade 1 victory last time out, and while the accomplishment represented a career high for Pessin, he is quick to turn the spotlight back to where he firmly believes it belongs.

"It's just nice to have a horse like her. I really don't think about self accomplishments. I think more in terms of the horse and I'm just happy (she's in this position)," he said. "Hopefully she runs well. She still hasn't gotten the respect I think she deserves to get.

"When they talk about the (Filly & Mare) Sprint they really don't mention her that much. They mention Gamine and Serengeti Empress, who we already beat. Hopefully she can show up again and run her big race and hopefully earn a little respect because she's run 14 times—Breeders' Cup will be 15—and she's never been the favorite."

Lothenbach Stables' Bell's the One was the fourth choice behind Serengeti Empress last out in the Sept. 5 Derby City Distaff Stakes Presented by Derby City Gaming (G1) at Churchill Downs. But the 4-year-old rallied from the back of the pack to defeat the speedy favorite in a photo finish.

"The only thing I was hoping was that she showed up and ran her race. If we won, we won. If we didn't, that was OK, too," Pessin said. "I was just happy that she ran as good as she did. I said to (Serengeti Empress' trainer) Tom (Amoss) I'd take a dead heat, and he agreed."

But after a review of the photo, Bell's the One was declared the winner by a nose.

"As I told someone after the race, after they made us official, I said, 'Never had a doubt. We won easy,'" Pessin joked. "She's just a gutsy filly and she gives her all every time she runs. I was just happy that she showed up and ran a big race on Derby Day there. Eventually she's going to get some respect. I just don't know when that's going to be."

Video: Derby City Distaff S. presented by Derby City Gaming (G1)

In addition to Serengeti Empress and Gamine, Bell's the One will face other grade 1 winners Come Dancing and Speech in the seven-furlong FIlly & Mare Sprint, as well as multiple grade 1-placed and dual grade 2 winner Venetian Harbor. She has the most experience over Keeneland's track among her rivals with four starts, including a win in last fall's Lexus Raven Run Stakes (G2) at seven furlongs. Bell's the One has another Keeneland win from a 2018 allowance optional claiming event and finished third in the July 11 Madison Stakes (G1).

"As she gets older she just seems to get a little better," Pessin said. "Every race I think she's gotten better. Some of the races she got beat were partially my fault, a couple times a jock's fault. She's won half her races: seven out of 14. She's won turf, dirt, poly, short, and long, so I don't know what else you can ask a horse to do that she hasn't done."

At Home at Keeneland

Breeders' Cup is a bit of a homecoming for Pessin, who has been based at Churchill Downs since returning from the Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots winter meet. The track in Louisville, the city in which Pessin currently resides, has been his base for about three years now after previously basing at Arlington International Racecourse and Keeneland.

Some of Pessin's best wins of the 214 he's assembled during his career have come in his hometown at Keeneland, including his first graded stakes win with Coaxing Matt in the Elkhorn Stakes (G2T) during the 1993 spring meet. Coaxing Matt also won that fall's Keeneland Breeders' Cup Stakes (G3T) and Pessin scored another Keeneland graded event with Chin High in the 2006 Central Bank Transylvania Stakes (G3T).

"I've had good luck there. I've won graded stakes there before, even before 'Bell,' and won quite a few races over there in the past," he said. "But I've always tried to set up for the Keeneland meet if I had horses that were good enough. There's some years I didn't have horses that were good enough. We just came anyway because it was home."

Pessin comes by his love for horses and racing honestly. His father built the Kentucky Training Center (now the Thoroughbred Center) in Lexington and Kentucky Downs (originally Dueling Grounds Race Track) in Franklin, Ky., and also founded Winchester Farm, a 500-acre stallion and broodmare complex, where he stood successful sire Olden Times.

Despite the life of a trainer requiring moving multiple times a year as racing circuits open and close for different seasons, Pessin said he enjoys racing and loves being around the horses. And Bell's the One is one of his best. 

Bred in Kentucky by Bret Jones out of the Street Cry mare Street Mate, she was purchased by Lothenbach Stables for $155,000 from Brereton C. Jones' consignment to The July Sale, Fasig-Tipton's selected yearling sale in Lexington, in 2017. She debuted for Pessin at 2, winning her first four starts, and has earned $790,040 to date. 

The bay filly has made four starts this season. Prior to the Derby City Distaff and Madison she won the May 30 Winning Colors Stakes (G3) at Churchill by three lengths. Her lone off-the-board finish this year came in the Feb. 25 Mardi Gras Stakes on turf at Fair Grounds, where she bobbled at the five-sixteenths pole.

Bell's the One completed her final Breeders' Cup preparations Oct. 31 at Churchill Downs by breezing a sharp half-mile in :47 3/5 on a fast track. Pessin said the drill was one of the best works he's seen from the filly in her entire career. Regular jockey Corey Lanerie was in the irons and will have the return call Saturday.

Even though the likely favorites for the Filly & Mare Sprint will be the speedy frontrunners, whom Pessin has not written off, the trainer is happy with his own fighting contender.

"A lot of times Keeneland will favor speed a little bit, and I don't know if Gamine and Venetian Harbor are fast enough to go with 'Serengeti,'" he said. "I'm a little worried that they're not going to go real fast up front. But my filly is still going to come running and she'll run her race, and hopefully we can get there."