Rodriguez Bids for First BC Win with Bella Sofia

As the first weekend in November arrives, you would usually find New York trainer Rudy Rodriguez at a chilly Belmont Park preparing his horses for races at the even colder and windier Aqueduct Racetrack.

This year, November is starting in a much different fashion for Rodriguez, one far away from home.

But he's not complaining.

On the morning of Nov. 1 at Del Mar, Rodriguez wore a smile as bright as the Southern California sunshine as he walked through the barn area 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. 

While the 49-year-old Rodriguez has three unplaced Breeders' Cup starts to his credit, Bella Sofia represents his best chance to date for a victory at the World Championships.

Though he's one of New York's top trainers, with 10 New York Racing Association meet titles to his credit, the bulk of his stable consists of allowance runners and claimers. He entered this year with nearly 1,200 career wins since 2010 and the leading trainer at the 2020-21 Aqueduct winter meet, but his last graded stakes victory came in 2017.

Then an obscurely bred, $20,000 filly named Bella Sofia entered his life this year and gave him his fifth career grade 1 winner.

"We try to enjoy every moment," Rodriguez said. "Horses like her do not come around too often. We just want to keep soaking it in. This is the moment we work for all year long. Just to compete in the Breeders' Cup is a blessing."

Though she's a quirky and easily distracted filly who commanded considerable work to get her to the races and Rodriguez's steady hands on those occasions 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.

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."