Catch a Glimpse Breezes for Breeders' Cup

Gary Barber, Michael James Ambler, and Windways Farm's Catch a Glimpse and Stonestreet Stables' Valadorna, trainer Mark Casse's two Breeders' Cup World Championships pre-entrants stabled at Keeneland with assistant David Carroll, both worked Thursday, Oct. 27. 

Casse has five other horses pre-entered for Breeders' Cup based at Churchill Downs, including champion grass mare Tepin, grade I winners Classic Empire and Victory to Victory, and graded stakes winners La Coronel and Keep Quiet. That group is scheduled to work Friday, Oct. 28.

After the renovation break Thursday at Keeneland, Canada's 2015 Horse of the Year Catch a Glimpse, with exercise rider E. J. Bowler aboard, worked four furlongs on dirt in :49 2/5. Keeneland clockers caught her in fractions of :24 3/5, :49 2/5 and out in 1:03 3/5.

"She trains well over the dirt," Carroll said, adding that Catch a Glimpse breezed on dirt here from April until early July when she was based at Keeneland. "This track is such a good surface to train over. We were very happy to breeze over it.

"She breezed very nice, within herself. She came back bouncing around. We're very happy."

Catch a Glimpse was pre-entered in the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (gr. IT) and Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf (gr. IT) but Casse confirmed Oct. 27 that the latter will be the filly's target.

With Catch a Glimpse's regular rider, Florent Geroux, slated to ride Sea Calisi (FR) in the Filly and Mare Turf, Javier Castellano will pick up the mount on the multiple grade I winner.

In her last race, Catch a Glimpse faded to seventh in Keeneland's Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Presented by Lane's End (gr. IT) after setting the early pace. Carroll said the 3-year-old City Zip   filly came out of the race "in great shape."

"Just draw a line through it and move on," he said. "I think they're all entitled to run a bad one here and there."

Casse said he hasn't been able to figure out why Catch a Glimpse, who won last year Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (gr. IT) at Keeneland, didn't fire in her previous start.

"Catch a Glimpse has been a bit of a head-scratcher. I still am not sure why she didn't run better in her last start. The only thing I can say is this, I've never seen her look better, she's trained well," Casse said. "The turf course at Keeneland this fall has been different than the turf course of last fall, when she did win there and won the Breeders' Cup. We had a ton of rain last year. This year, even though the turf hasn't been extremely fast, it's been very dry, and I just don't know.  

"I knew we were in trouble after a quarter of a mile, because I had told (jockey Florent Geroux) that I wanted him to establish the lead. I said, 'I want you to come away from there and let everybody know that we intend on being on the lead,' and he couldn't even do that. So, I knew we were in trouble after a quarter of a mile."

At about 7:30 a.m. Thursday, Valadorna, who is pre-entered in the 14 Hands Winery Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (gr. I), worked four furlongs in :48 4/5 following an internal fraction of :24 2/5 in what Carroll called "a nice maintenance work."

On Oct. 7 at Keeneland, Valadorna scored a six-length victory in a 1 1/16-mile maiden race. The performance came in the second start for the Curlin   filly.

Carroll said Catch a Glimpse and Valadorna will fly to California on Monday. Post positions for the Breeders' Cup will be drawn that day.