Getting to Know Don't Tell Sophia

Don't Tell Sophia bought her plane ticket to the Breeders' Cup Distaff when she earned the last Win and You're In spot by winning the Spinster.
The winner of three of her four races this year going into the Grade 1 Juddmonte Spinster Stakes at Keeneland Race Course, Don’t Tell Sophia took her record to a nearly perfect 4-for-5 on the year when winning the Oct. 5 race.
The 6-year-old mare’s win in the Spinster clinched the final “Win and You’re In” spot for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff and guaranteed her a trip to California for the race. Let’s take a look at how Don’t Tell Sophia’s presence in the Distaff will affect the field.
Race Résumé
Don’t Tell Sophia isn’t a newcomer to the racing scene as she has been on the track for nearly four years.
She made her debut at Keeneland on Oct. 17, 2010, finishing second. Don’t Tell Sophia wasn’t seen again until July of the following year when she was ready to fire, breaking her maiden by 1 ¼ lengths and following with a dominant 8 ¾-length victory in an allowance race.
Over the next year and a half, Don’t Tell Sophia held her own in allowance races and got her feet wet in stakes competition, but it wasn’t until the beginning of 2013 that she really came into her own. She made her season debut in the Pippin Stakes, and it was in that race that she showed she has the talent to compete at higher levels, winning by 7 ¼ lengths and earning an Equibase Speed Figure of 102.
A 6 ½-length victory over a Bayakoa Stakes field that included graded stakes winners She’s All In and Tiz Miz Sue showed that Don’t Tell Sophia’s first stakes win was no fluke. Since those first two stakes victories, Don’t Tell Sophia has hit the board in all of her starts, including six graded stakes. She has won back to back editions of the Pippin Stakes and Bayakoa Stakes, and she earned her first graded stakes victory in the Grade 2 Chilukki Stakes last November. But by far, her biggest win to date came in the Spinster Stakes, which was her first Grade 1 victory.
2014 Spinster Stakes

Unlike the other automatic qualifiers for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, Don’t Tell Sophia doesn’t want any part of being on the pace.
In the Spinster, Don’t Tell Sophia was fine lagging far behind. Early in the race, she was three lengths behind the second-to-last place horse and was five lengths behind the rest of the field at the second point of call. It wasn’t until the far turn that she started picking off horses, but when she did she showed a closing kick that took her from eight lengths behind the leader at the three-eighths pole to 2 1/2 lengths in front of the whole field at the finish line.
The closing running style isn’t anything new for Don’t Tell Sophia, and she seems to close well no matter what the pace is. She has been able to close into half-mile fractions run in times ranging from 45 seconds to 50 seconds, showing that she can adapt to many different pace scenarios. She shouldn’t have to worry about a slow pace in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, however, with the three other “Win and You’re In” entrants all wanting to be close to the lead.
The biggest question for Don’t Tell Sophia when it comes to the pace is the quality of horses she has been chasing in her races. While she did pass top Distaff contender Close Hatches in the Spinster, that filly seemed to have an off day in this race and beat Don’t Tell Sophia earlier this year. Perhaps an even bigger worry is Beholder, who loves Santa Anita and can win even when setting or dueling through fast fractions.
Pedigree
A $1,000 purchase as a yearling, Don’t Tell Sophia is by multiple Grade 1 winner Congaree and out of graded stakes-placed winner Lost Expectations.
Congaree was a Grade 1 winner at a range of distances from seven furlongs to 1 ¼ miles. He also was third in both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes and has two Cigar Mile wins to his name, giving him quite the résumé.
While he hasn’t been the most successful sire, he has passed on his stamina and speed. Both Don’t Tell Sophia and his other high-profile Grade 1 winner Jeranimo have won at route distances while he also had a group stakes-winning sprinter in Europe in 2009. Overall, Congaree has 13 stakes winners from his 166 winners through Oct. 9. 
DON'T TELL SOPHIA AND JOE ROCCO, JR. AFTER THE SPINSTER

Don’t Tell Sophia’s dam, Lost Expectations, was third in the six-furlong Schuylerville Stakes and is by sprinter Valid Expectations, but she has shown that it doesn’t keep her from passing along some stamina. In addition to Don’t Tell Sophia, she is the dam of multiple stakes winner Summer Song, who earned most of her stakes wins at distances of more than a mile in addition to a graded stakes-placing at 1 1/8 miles.
Looking deeper into her pedigree, it is clear that Don’t Tell Sophia has the best résumé of anyone in her first four generations. However, other stakes winners in her female family have won at longer distances, showing that even though her dam was a sprinter with a sprinter sire, Don’t Tell Sophia’s female family infuses her with at least some of the stamina she has shown in her career.
While Don’t Tell Sophia doesn’t have the credentials of some of the others in the Distaff field, don’t write her off. If some of the other horses in the field get into a speed duel, it could set up perfectly for her racing style and give those who place a bet on her a nice return on the investment.