Audarya Aims to Defend BC Filly & Mare Turf Title

While Audarya  hasn't won a race in four tries this year, trainer James Fanshawe believes the Del Mar course could be just what the 5-year-old Wootton Bassett  mare needs when she attempts to win the $2 million Maker's Mark Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1T) a second straight year.

Earlier this season Fanshawe speculated that Audarya might prefer racing void of hills, based on her two top-level victories earned on flat courses. Those came last year when she won the Darley Prix Jean Romanet (G1) at Chantilly and closed out the season with a neck victory in the Filly & Mare Turf at Keeneland, setting a course record there when completing 1 3/16 miles in 1:52.72.

Also, the empty win column might be the only thing wrong with Audarya's campaign this year. Campaigned by Alison Swinburn, Audarya in 2021 has started exclusively in group 1 races and finished second in both the Prince of Wales's Stakes (G1) at Royal Ascot and in this year's Prix Jean Romanet. She followed the latter effort with a fourth-place finish in the Prix de l'Opera Longines, a race in which she finished third ahead of last year's Breeders' Cup score.

With a victory Audarya would join Ouija Board  as the only two-time winner of the race, and Audarya would be the first horse to win the race in consecutive years. She'll have to do it from the outside post in the field of 12.

A familiar rival awaits for Audarya as that runner-up finish at Royal Ascot this year was three-quarters of a length behind Love , a dual classic winner campaigned by Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, and Susan Magnier. Trainer Aidan O'Brien, in search of his first Filly & Mare Turf victory, will send out the 4-year-old Galileo filly. 

Like Audarya, Love will look to snap a bit of a skid. but the three-loss streak has come at the highest level and includes a third-place finish against males in the Juddmonte International Stakes (G1). O'Brien noted that the plan calls for Love to close her season in Hong Kong.

While the two European runners aim to get untracked, New York-based War Like Goddess  will put a four-race win streak on the line. Racing for George Krikorian, the 4-year-old daughter of English Channel   has displayed a powerful closing kick in winning six of her seven career races and enters off the first grade 1 score of her career, a 2 1/4-length score in the Flower Bowl Stakes (G1T).

Riley Mott, assistant and son of trainer Bill Mott, said the filly continues to progress.

"She's doing great, and we are very excited about her," Mott said. "She'll be a top-three horse in her race, and deservedly so. She's had a great year."

Breeders' Cup expects seven Japan-based runners this year, and the most accomplished of the group, Loves Only You , will start in the Filly & Mare Turf. Campaigned by DMM Dream Club, the 5-year-old Deep Impact mare will be looking for her second big international victory of the season, having taken the FWD Queen Elizabeth II Cup (G1) in April at Sha Tin. 

Trained by Yoshito Yahagi, Loves Only You prepped for the Breeders' Cup with a runner-up finish in the Aug. 22 Sapporo Kinen (G2) at Sapporo, her first start since the Hong Kong score.

Trainer Chad Brown, who has won this race four of the past nine years, will send out a pair of runners in Peter Brant's My Sister Nat  and Juddmonte homebred Pocket Square . 

A 6-year-old daughter of Acclamation , My Sister Nat finished ninth in last year's Filly and Mare Turf, where she put together a mild rally from 13th. A half sister to Brant's 2018 Filly & Mare Turf winner Sistercharlie , My Sister Nat enters this year's race off a 2 1/2-length score in the Fasig-Tipton Waya Stakes (G3T) Oct. 3 on the inner turf at Belmont Park, contested at the 1 3/8-mile distance of this year's Filly & Mare Turf.

Pocket Square has won two straight races, including her first graded stakes victory in the United States: the Athenia Stakes (G3T) Sept. 25 at Saratoga Race Course. Brown likes how the daughter of Night of Thunder  is progressing.

"For right now, she's doing everything I'm asking her to do," Brown said. "I know it's a huge step up in class, but I'm very, very pleased with how she's doing and I think she can get a piece of it." 

The race will feature a pair of Southern California-based runners in Going to Vegas , a daughter of Goldencents   who has won three straight races including the Rodeo Drive Stakes (G1T) Oct. 2 at Santa Anita Park for owners Abbondanza Racing, Medallion Racing, and MyRacehorse; and LNJ Foxwoods' Dogtag , a multiple graded stakes-placed stakes-winning daughter of War Front  . Richard Baltas trains Going to Vegas and Richard Mandella conditions Dogtag.

OFFICIAL: Post Positions for the $2 Million @MakersMark #BreedersCup Filly & Mare Turf at @DelMarRacing.

ℹ️: https://t.co/SCSAS1KtKd #BC21 pic.twitter.com/0ruJa8Kuzb

— Breeders' Cup (@BreedersCup) November 1, 2021

Entries: Maker's Mark Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1T)

Del Mar, Saturday, November 06, 2021, Race 7

• Grade IT
• 1 3/8m
• Turf
• $2,000,000
• 3 yo's & up Fillies and Mares
• 1:59 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Going to Vegas (KY)	UMBERTO RISPOLI	124	Richard Baltas	12/1
2	2Pocket Square (GB)	Irad Ortiz, Jr.	124	Chad C. Brown	15/1
3	3Acanella (GB)	Colin Keane	120	Ger Lyons	12/1
4	4Rougir (FR)	Maxime H. Guyon	120	Cedric Rossi	6/1
5	5Queen Supreme (IRE)	James Doyle	124	Andrew Balding	20/1
6	6Love (IRE)	Ryan L. Moore	124	Aidan P. O'Brien	4/1
7	7War Like Goddess (KY)	Julien R. Leparoux	124	William I. Mott	7/2
8	8Loves Only You (JPN)	Yuga Kawada	124	Yoshito Yahagi	4/1
9	9My Sister Nat (FR)	Jose L. Ortiz	124	Chad C. Brown	15/1
10	10Ocean Road (IRE)	Oisin Murphy	120	Hugo Palmer	20/1
11	11Dogtag (KY)	Flavien Prat	124	Richard E. Mandella	30/1
12	12Audarya (FR)	William T. Buick	124	J. R. Fanshawe	5/1