Foreign Raiders Pursue Upgraded BC Juvenile Turf Sprint

In recent years, the Breeders' Cup featured 13 grade 1 races and one exception—the $1 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, a grade 2 from 2019-21.

Now it too has joined the upper echelon of North American stakes ranks as a grade 1, and the field lured for the Nov. 4 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G1T) at Keeneland, while not on par with the champion-making FanDuel Breeders' Cup Juvenile Presented by Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance (G1), appears worthy of the upper-level designation.

The 5 1/2-furlong grass dash has drawn the likes of The Platinum Queen , a group 1 winner against older horses in France, as well as other talented Europeans in Dramatised , Mischief Magic , and Persian Force , plus the stateside representation of speedy stakes winners Love Reigns , Private Creed , Speed Boat Beach , and Tyler's Tribe —among others.

Middleham Park Racing XV's The Platinum Queen, trained by Richard Fahey, seeks to become the first European-trained runner to win the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, a race whose initial running (under listed conditions) was taken by the Todd Pletcher-trained Bulletin . The past three renewals have been won by Wesley Ward trainees Four Wheel Drive  (2019), Golden Pal   (2020), and Twilight Gleaming  (2021).

The latter, however, had European experience, running second in the Queen Mary Stakes (G2) at Ascot and winning the Prix de la Vallee d'Auge in Deauville after a couple of initial domestic starts. Ward then brought her back to the States to prep for the Breeders' Cup.

Ward's entrant this year, Love Reigns, doesn't show the same preparation—two wins in the U.S. surround a fourth-place finish in the Queen Mary—but she's fast, as his prior winners were, and is raced by Stonestreet Stables, Twilight Gleaming's owner.

Irad Ortiz Jr., aboard all three of Ward's prior winners, is also aboard.

"She has a lot of natural speed," he said of the Bolton Landing Stakes winner. "Irad was able to take her back a little bit (rating in second) in her last run. It shows that she is tactical as well."

Ward subsequently entered Love Reigns in the Indian Summer Stakes Presented by Keeneland Select Oct. 9 but scratched her, choosing to bring her into the Breeders' Cup after a layoff.

"She's coming fresh into the race, not having run since Saratoga," he said. "Really looking forward for a big effort."

The Platinum Queen, favored with British bookmakers, would appear to be a cut over prior European travelers for this race, having defeated 17 rivals between ages 3-6 when in receipt of a significant weight break in the Prix de l'Abbaye de Longchamp Longines (G1).

"It's a real credit to that filly and shows you how good she is to be able to beat older horses, being only 2-years-old," said Ward, whose speedy juvenile filly Acapulco  ran second in the 2015 Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes (G1) when tested against elders.

Hollie Doyle, able to make the 116-pound weight assignment in the Prix de l'Abbaye de Longchamp, returns in the irons on the speedy Cotai Glory  filly, who is 4-2-0 in seven starts. One of the filly's seconds came in this year's Nunthorpe Stakes against older foes.

The Platinum Queen is among a group of top mounts at this year's Breeders' Cup for Doyle, who seeks to become the first female European rider to win a Breeders' Cup race. Americans Rosie Napravnik and Julie Krone are the only females to have ridden winners in the Breeders' Cup.

Doyle isn't the only female with a top mount in the Juvenile Turf Sprint. Kylee Jordan, leading rider at Prairie Meadows this summer, has the ride on the Iowa-bred sensation Tyler's Tribe. The 5-for-5 Sharp Azteca   colt has posted some of the fastest speed figures in the country this year by a juvenile on dirt, but he is unraced on turf, or outside of Iowa-bred company.

"He's crushed his competition, and I'm excited to see what he is going to do against some tougher competition. I think he'll take it pretty well," Jordan said.

Trained by Tim Martin and owned by Martin and Tom Lepic, Tyler's Tribe is named after Lepic's 8-year-old grandson Tyler Juhl, who has battled leukemia since his diagnosis in August 2020.

Typical for a short-distance race, many of the participants are speedsters, with one of the quickest ones being Speed Boat Beach. The Bob Baffert-trained son of Bayern  set a track record in blitzing 5 1/2 furlongs on dirt in 1:01.86 at Del Mar in his debut and then won from just off the pace to win the five-furlong Speakeasy Stakes on turf at Santa Anita Park in :55.25. He races for owners Mike Pegram, Karl Watson, and Paul Weitman.

Entries: Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G1T)

Keeneland, Friday, November 04, 2022, Race 6

• Grade IT
• 5 1/2f
• Turf
• $1,000,000
• 2 yo
• 3:00 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Lady Hollywood (GB)	Umberto Rispoli	119	Alice Haynes	15/1
2	2Love Reigns (IRE)	Irad Ortiz, Jr.	119	Wesley A. Ward	4/1
3	3Private Creed (KY)	Joel Rosario	122	Steven M. Asmussen	12/1
4	4Dramatised (IRE)	Ryan L. Moore	119	Karl Burke	15/1
5	5Mischief Magic (IRE)	William T. Buick	122	Charles Appleby	8/1
6	6Persian Force (IRE)	Lanfranco Dettori	122	Richard Hannon	15/1
7	7Oxymore (KY)	Jose L. Ortiz	122	Chad C. Brown	8/1
8	8American Apple (KY)	Gerardo Corrales	119	Daniel Leitch	20/1
9	9Sharp Aza Tack (KY)	Tyler Gaffalione	122	Doug F. O'Neill	15/1
10	10Tyler's Tribe (IA)	Kylee R. Jordan	122	Timothy E. Martin	15/1
11	11Speed Boat Beach (FL)	Flavien Prat	122	Bob Baffert	6/1
12	12The Platinum Queen (IRE)	Hollie Doyle	119	Richard Fahey	7/2
13	13Bushido (KY)	Luis Saez	122	Darwin D. Banach	20/1
14	14No Nay Hudson (IRE)	John R. Velazquez	122	Wesley A. Ward	15/1
15	15Mounsieur Coco (KY)	Florent Geroux	122	Fausto Gutierrez	30/1