Aunt Pearl Shines on Front End of Juvenile Fillies Turf

Aunt Pearl ran to a clear lead early in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1T) and had no problem keeping her 13 rivals behind her as she crossed the wire 2 1/2 lengths in front Nov. 6 at Keeneland.

The Brad Cox-trained filly is now 3-for-3 for owners Michael Dubb, Madaket Stables, Peter Deutsch, Michael Kisber, The Elkstone Group, and Bethlehem Stables. But unlike many of her luminous stablemates campaigned by the high-power ownership group, this daughter of Lope de Vega joined her connections' stable from Europe.

"We have been buying a decent amount of the horses, actually, unproven the last few years, Mike (Dubb) and I together," said Madaket's Sol Kumin. "Liz Crow, who bought (champions and Breeders' Cup winners) Monomoy Girl and British Idiom for us both, along with Brad Weisbord, had an idea of going to Europe and trying to do the same things.

"We put a group together, and Mike and I were sort of the first two that were part of it, and then we filled it in with some other members. They went over there and they did a lot of hard work, and this was one of the fillies that they bought in that group, so obviously a terrific job by the team scouting the horse out.

"From the beginning, we knew she was one of the better ones in the group. I think she obviously turned out to probably be the best one. Brad Cox has liked her from the beginning. Paul Sharp did a great job breaking her in Ocala, and we really are happy about where we are."

Cox's first Breeders' Cup win came with Monomoy Girl in the 2018 Longines Distaff (G1). Last year he won the Juvenile Fillies with British Idiom and the Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) with Covfefe. One race after Aunt Pearl on Friday, he took the TVG Juvenile Presented by Thoroughbred Aftercare (G1) with Essential Quality.

Dubb and Kumin credited Weisbord with his desire to grow the game for bringing in new partners on Aunt Pearl.

"Brad, he's a great ambassador for the game, and he's put together a stellar team with Liz Crow, and success speaks for itself," Dubb said. "People have reached out to him, and it's entirely possible Sol and I would have taken larger percentages of the horse, but for Brad's desire to get more people involved in the game. While we own a majority of the horse, there's two other partners in the horse that are good people, they have been around the game a long time, and I think for them it was their first Breeders' Cup win, so hats off to them."

The partners on the filly have also come together in another way off the track related to another Aunt Pearl.

"I have one thing with Aunt Pearl I'm very proud of. She's named after my Aunt Pearl, who is my grandfather's sister—crazy sister from Asbury Park," Dubb said. "And as what a small world it would be, one of our other partners, Stu Grant (of The Elkstone Group), knows Aunt Pearl's daughter from Delaware."

Aunt Pearl broke from post 5 under Florent Geroux as the 5-2 favorite and opened by three lengths at the beginning of the mile event. She ran a :22.55 quarter-mile before slowing down to a half in :47.30 and three-quarters in 1:12.21. Stonestreet Stable's Campanelle, whose victories include the Queen Mary Stakes (G2) and Darley Prix Morny (G1) in Europe, was back in second early. Miss Grillo Stakes (G2T) winner Plum Ali, who shares the winning connections of Dubb, Madaket, and Bethlehem, was still back in ninth at the quarter pole.

Undeterred by the field chasing her home, Aunt Pearl maintained her clear lead all the way to the wire. The final time on the good turf was 1:35.71.

"That was a devastating performance. She is an amazing filly. Very proud of her," Cox said. "Speed is her weapon and she knows how to use it. I was pretty confident (she would win) when I saw the :47, and (Geroux) obviously knows her well." 

"I know she is extremely fast. I just tried to get away good. She was off to a flying start," Geroux said. "She went pretty quick early on, and after that I tried to get her to relax. On the backside she came back to me. When I asked her, she had plenty left. She's extremely talented. I think the sky is the limit for her. Over the winter, hopefully she'll grow a little bit and next year we can do it again." 

Mother Earth, campaigned by Coolmore-associated connections, rallied from 12th to finish second at 22-1. She bested Doreen Tabor's third-place Miss Amulet by a neck. Campanelle was fourth, completing an Irish-bred superfecta. Plum Ali ran fifth.

Lope de Vega is also the sire of 2018 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner Newspaperofrecord. Bred by Ecurie Des Charmes & Ballylinch Stud, Aunt Pearl is out of the stakes-placed Hurricane Run mare Matauri Pearl. 

She was purchased from Book 1 of the 2019 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale for $358,767 from the Ballylinch Stud consignment by agent Liz Crow for BSW Euro Venture. The bay filly won on debut Sept. 1 at Churchill Downs, where she scored by five lengths at a mile. She then raced 1 1/16 miles in the JPMorgan Chase Jessamine Stakes (G2T) Oct. 7 at Keeneland, registering a 2 1/2-length score. All three efforts have come on the front end and led her to earnings of $652,784. 

"Liz is amazing. I don't understand her job, much like she probably doesn't understand mine, but she does it incredibly well and with little fanfare and very calm and very clear in her explanations to us, just a pleasure to work with," Dubb said.

"Hard-working, honest, and just clearly very good at what she does," Kumin said of Crow. "We just hope she can still buy the good ones for us, now that she's buying horses for lots of people now."

Video: Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1T)