Oaks Winners Monomoy Girl, Abel Tasman Meet in Distaff

As the past two winners of the Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) head the deep field for this year's Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1), Churchill Downs serves as a most appropriate site for the showdown between Monomoy Girl and Abel Tasman.

The 2018 Oaks winner, Momomoy Girl, has reached the wire first in all six of her races this season, although in her most recent start, she was disqualified to second behind Distaff rival Midnight Bisou for interference in the Cotillion Stakes (G1) at Parx Racing. 

Despite that outcome, Monomoy Girl has dominated the 3-year-old filly division this season. The daughter of Tapizar  has won four grade 1 stakes for Michael Dubb, Monomoy Stables, The Elkstone Group, and Bethlehem Stables—the Kentucky Oaks, Central Bank Ashland Stakes, Acorn Stakes, and Coaching Club American Oaks.

Monomoy Girl, the 2-1 morning-line favorite who will start from post 11 in the Distaff, has eight wins from 10 starts and never has finished worse than second. Trainer and Louisville, Ky., native Brad Cox marvels at the consistency of his first grade 1 winner, noting it's not just on race day that the athletic chestnut carries herself at a high level.

"She's really, really a nice horse in the morning, so she lets you know she's going to run well," Cox said. "And the way she trains, it definitely gives us confidence when we lead her over there. She always lets us know she's going to run well by how she's training."

Though Monomoy Girl's six starts this season have come at six tracks, Churchill feels like home for horse and trainer. She's responded to the comfortable surroundings with an impressive string of four works since the Cotillion, including a bullet five-furlong breeze in 1:00 Oct. 13, as she works toward her first start against older horses.

"As far as the race being at Churchill, it's definitely not a disadvantage," Cox said. "She loves it there, it's home for her, and she has trained extremely well over the track and run extremely well over the track. So it's only a plus, I believe, with the Breeders' Cup being there."

Churchill also provides comfortable ground for 2017 champion 3-year-old filly Abel Tasman, who will look to improve on her runner-up finish in last year's Distaff at Del Mar. The daughter of Quality Road  added two more grade 1 wins this year in the Ogden Phipps Stakes in June at Belmont Park and the Personal Ensign Stakes in August at Saratoga Race Course.

China Horse Club and Clearsky Farms' Abel Tasman—a winner of grade 1 races at 2, 3, and 4—enters off a well-beaten fifth in the Zenyatta Stakes (G1) at Santa Anita Park, just the third time in her 15-start career she's finished worse than second. Trainer Bob Baffert doesn't have all the answers on what happened in that Sept. 30 event, but knows a slow start didn't help. Since that effort, Abel Tasman has worked three times, going five furlongs, seven furlongs, and four furlongs at Santa Anita.

"She didn't want to run that day, but she has come back and worked really well," Baffert said. "So I just can't see her doing that again."

Though Abel Tasman didn't fire in the Zenyatta, Baffert still won the race with Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al Maktoum's Vale Dori, giving the trainer a pair of starters as he pursues his first Distaff win. Baffert said he recommended racing the daughter of Asiatic Boy this season, so he felt some relief after she secured her first win of the season in the Zenyatta—her third career grade/group 1 score. He added that when she gets away from the gate well, she can compete with the best.

Vale Dori isn't the only Distaff runner entered for the 1 1/8-mile race off a top-level win. She is joined by Bloom Racing Stable, Madaket Stables, and Allen Racing's Midnight Bisou, Merriebelle Stable's Blue Prize, and Peter Brant and Stud Vendaval's Wow Cat.

The Cotillion win for Midnight Bisou marked her first grade 1 score since the daughter of Midnight Lute  rallied from eighth to win the Santa Anita Oaks (G1) in April for then-trainer Bill Spawr. That's not to say she's struggled between those starts. She finished third in the Kentucky Oaks, and in her first start after being transferred to trainer Steve Asmussen, she won the Mother Goose Stakes (G2) at Belmont. She added two more grade 1 placings ahead of her Cotillion score, and now will try to give Asmussen his second Distaff win.

Trainer Ignacio Correas IV will look for his first Breeders' Cup win with Blue Prize, who enters the Distaff on top of her game. The group 1 winner in her native Argentina earned her first grade 1 victory in the Oct. 7 Juddmonte Spinster Stakes at Keeneland, which was the Pure Prize mare's third straight graded stakes victory. The first two wins in that stretch came at Churchill in the Fleur de Lis Handicap (G2) and Locust Grove Stakes (G3).

Champion trainer Chad Brown aims for his first Distaff win with Wow Cat, who delivered her best North American effort in winning the Beldame Stakes (G1) by 3 1/4 lengths. That could signal top form for the daughter of Lookin At Lucky , who also boasts four top-level wins in her native Chile.

Entries: Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1)

Churchill Downs, Saturday, November 03, 2018, Race 9

• Grade I
• 1 1/8m
• Dirt
• $2,000,000
• 3 yo's & up Fillies and Mares
• 4:16 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Champagne Problems (KY)	Calvin H. Borel	124	Ian R. Wilkes	12/1
2	2Abel Tasman (KY)	Mike E. Smith	124	Bob Baffert	7/2
3	3La Force (GER)	Drayden Van Dyke	124	Patrick Gallagher	20/1
4	4Mopotism (KY)	Mario Gutierrez	124	Doug F. O'Neill	30/1
5	5Wonder Gadot (ON)	Irad Ortiz, Jr.	121	Mark E. Casse	15/1
6	6Verve's Tale (KY)	Brian Joseph Hernandez, Jr.	124	Barclay Tagg	30/1
7	7Midnight Bisou (KY)	John R. Velazquez	121	Steven M. Asmussen	6/1
8	8Vale Dori (ARG)	Joseph Talamo	124	Bob Baffert	12/1
9	9Wow Cat (CHI)	Jose L. Ortiz	124	Chad C. Brown	8/1
10	10Blue Prize (ARG)	Joe Bravo	124	Ignacio Correas, IV	6/1
11	11Monomoy Girl (KY)	Florent Geroux	121	Brad H. Cox	2/1