Blue Prize, Next Shares Hone Form in Final BC Works

Breeders' Cup World Championship contenders Blue Prize and Next Shares honed their peaking forms in four-furlong works on a damp Oct. 28 morning at Keeneland.

Blue Prize, a 5-year-old daughter of Pure Prize, breezed the half-mile in :48 4/5 on the main track a day after she had been scheduled to work, said trainer Ignacio Correas IV. Rain that moved through early in the morning Saturday prompted the change in plans.

"We expected the track to be better this morning, and it was," Correas said. "She is where we expected her to be. Now it is up to her. There is not much more we can do; just stay out of her way."

Coming off her first North American top-level win Oct. 7 in the Juddmonte Spinster Stakes (G1), Blue Prize will take on a Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) field that includes five other grade 1 challengers, among them Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) winners Abel Tasman and Monomoy Girl.

"She has had an extraordinary year," Correas said of the Merriebelle Stable runner, who has won four of six starts this year and put together three consecutive graded stakes victories since June. "(The Distaff) would be, like, the second cherry on the top. The Spinster was the cherry. We are going into (the Distaff) with a mare at her best moment, peaking, and that is all we can ask. We can only bring our best horse and see if she can beat them."

Blue Prize won a group 1 race in her native Argentina and was runner-up in another before coming to the U.S. in 2017.

Next Shares worked along the outside rail of the boggy turf course with jockey Tyler Gaffalione in the irons, going a half-mile in :53 1/5. 

The good-feeling, 5-year-old gelded son of Archarcharch has been steadily improving since he arrived in Kentucky in September to race at Kentucky Downs. The Sunday morning work only reinforced the perception that he should be coming into his best form at the right time.

Next Shares captured his first stakes win of the year in the Sept. 6 Old Friends Stakes at Kentucky Downs. He then earned a spot in the Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T) starting gate by taking the Shadwell Turf Mile Stakes (G1T) by 3 1/4 lengths at Keeneland with Gaffalione aboard for the first time. Next Shares is trained by California-based Richard Baltas and owned by Michael and Jules Iavarone, Jerry McClanahan, Christopher Dunn, William Marasa, Ritchie Robershaw, and Mark Taylor.

"The horse ran so well here, and he only had a couple weeks between the Old Friends and the Shadwell Mile, so Richard decided to keep him here," said assistant trainer Aimee Dollase. "He has thrived here and gotten better with each race and every day."

Dollase also noted the partnership between Next Shares and Gaffalione has been a strong one. Gaffalione, who got his start in Florida, found his own vein of fortune in Kentucky this year, having ended his first full meet riding at Keeneland at the top of the jockey standings with 15 wins.

"Tyler had a tremendous meet, and a great year, and he is in the zone," Dollase said. "When you are calm and confident, the horses feel that, and they feel confident, too. Everything seems to click."