Bellafina Enters Juvenile Fillies on a Roll

There are limited opportunities for 2-year-olds to gain grade 1 status. So, when a filly already has a pair of grade 1 wins on her brief résumé by October, she figures to be the one to beat for the Nov. 2 Tito's Handmade Vodka Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1).

Bellafina, a striking bay daughter of Quality Road  who has notched back-to-back wins in the grade 1 Del Mar Debutante and Chandelier stakes at Santa Anita, by a combined 10 3/4 lengths, looms the 2-1 morning-line choice for the 1 1/16-mile race at Churchill Downs.

Kaleem Shah paid $800,000 for the Joseph Minor-bred filly at this year's Fasig-Tipton Florida Gulfstream 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale. Simon Callaghan, who sent out last year's Juvenile Fillies favorite, Moonshine Memories, trains. Last year's Juvenile Fillies winner, Caledonia Road, is also by Quality Road.

Recent history shows the Juvenile Fillies to be less than formful. Caledonia Road was 17-1 at Del Mar. Champagne Room, the 2016 winner, was a 33-1 stunner. In the inaugural Breeders' Cup in 1984, the 22-1 Outstandingly was placed first via the disqualification of 74-1 Fran's Valentine. (In this race, popular opinion is often misguided.)

While Bellafina sits squarely atop the West Coast contingent, front-running Jaywalk's star is rising in the East. Tractable in her stakes debut at Delaware Park for classic-winning trainer John Servis after breaking her maiden in the mud at Parx Racing, the daughter of first-crop sire Cross Traffic  won Belmont Park's one-turn mile Frizette Stakes (G1) by 5 3/4 lengths. Servis went to $190,000 at the 2017 Keeneland September Yearling Sale for Cash is King to land the half sister to stakes winner Danzatrice.

Lee Pokoik's Sippican Harbor won Saratoga Race Course's Spinaway Stakes (G1) at seven furlongs. Gary Contessa has opted to train the daughter of Orb , who has won her past two starts by a combined 19 lengths, up to the Breeders' Cup.

A pair of Kentucky-based fillies appear to be heading in the right direction in Restless Rider and Serengeti Empress.

Restless Rider, by Distorted Humor , stormed home an open-lengths winner of Keeneland's Darley Alcibiades Stakes (G1) as the favorite Oct. 5 in Lexington for trainer Kenny McPeek and owners Fern Circle Stables and Three Chimneys Farm. She won the six-furlong Debutante Stakes under the Twin Spires by 11 1/4 lengths in June.

Joel Politi's Serengeti Empress (by Alternation ) won the Ellis Park Debutante Stakes by 13 1/2 lengths, then popped a 19 1/2-length corker at Churchill Sept. 15 in the Pocahontas Stakes (G2), her first two-turn start.

Trainer Stanley Gold brought Fred Brei's Florida-bred Awesome Feather to Churchill Downs to win the Juvenile Fillies in 2010. This year, the South Florida-based trainer brings Arindel Farm's Cookie Dough, winner of her division's final two legs of the Florida Sires Stakes.

Entries: Tito's Handmade Vodka Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1)

Churchill Downs, Friday, November 02, 2018, Race 7

• Grade I
• 1 1/16m
• Dirt
• $2,000,000
• 2 yo Fillies
• 4:40 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Reflect (KY)	Jose L. Ortiz	122	J. Keith Desormeaux	15/1
2	2Serengeti Empress (KY)	Corey J. Lanerie	122	Thomas M. Amoss	7/2
3	3Vibrance (LA)	John R. Velazquez	122	Michael W. McCarthy	10/1
4	4Restless Rider (KY)	Brian Joseph Hernandez, Jr.	122	Kenneth G. McPeek	9/2
5	5Cassies Dreamer (KY)	Manuel Franco	122	Barclay Tagg	30/1
6	6Baby Nina (OH)	Tyler Gaffalione	122	Anthony T. Quartarolo	30/1
7	7Jaywalk (KY)	Joel Rosario	122	John C. Servis	7/2
8	8Sippican Harbor (KY)	Irad Ortiz, Jr.	122	Gary C. Contessa	12/1
9	9Splashy Kisses (KY)	Drayden Van Dyke	122	Doug F. O'Neill	20/1
10	10Bellafina (KY)	Flavien Prat	122	Simon Callaghan	2/1