Gio Ponti back on top in Turf Mile
There would appear to be any number of options at the Breeders’ Cup.
The two-day extravaganza now has 14 races, of which 10 carry Grade One status, but Gio Ponti does not seem to be the complete fit for any of them.
His victory in the Grade One Shadwell Turf Mile Stakes at Keeneland gave him an automatic entry for the Mile at Churchill Downs next month, but no certainty whether he would cut it with the best from Europe over a mile.
Ramon Dominguez sat towards the back of the field, as Enriched and Acting Zippy set the early fractions. He then brought Gio Ponti (pictured right) through under a hand ride to beat Society’s Chairman – while giving Courageous Cat a bit of a bump along the way - without delving too deep into the horse’s reserves. However, backers might want to reserve their final decision on whether Gio Ponti has what it takes to add a Breeders’ Cup title to his long list of honours.
A year ago Gio Ponti came to the Breeders’ Cup having won four Grade Ones on turf and, running on the turf-related synthetic track at Santa Anita, took second behind Zenyatta in the Classic. He has still shown himself to be one of America’s best turf horses when he won the Grade One Man O'War Stakes at Belmont in July and was only just touched off by British runner Debussy, under a canny ride for top young rider William Buick, in Arlington Million the following month.
The problem for his trainer, Christophe Clement, is that he is better on turf – which means the return to a dirt track like Churchill works against him – but the options on grass do not favour his horse in terms of distance. The Turf, at 12 furlongs is too far, while the Mile is really too short and both will have several top-class European runners who will be completely suited by those distances.
Which brings Clement back to the Classic conundrum, or not, as the case may be with the trainer not giving much away just yet beyond saying that “it’s a pretty good problem to have.”
Dominguez thought that he might have a problem with Gio Ponti dropping back to a mile for the first time since he won the Frank E Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita in March last year. “I want to give all the credit to my horse and to Christophe,” he said. “I didn’t really expect him to be that sharp going a mile, and I was so pleased to see him running that close and so handy like this.”
Proviso was proving to be a conundrum that even André Fabre never really got to the bottom of but a switch to Bill Mott’s barn – and a medication programme – has brought this mare back to the best of her European form and she racked up her fourth Grade One win in succession with a late show to claim the First Lady Stakes.
Having left it late on Zenyatta in the Lady’s Secret Stakes at Hollywood last week, Mike Smith did it again. Proviso was second last off the turn but came with a withering late run to catch CS Silk in the shadow of the line. Mott will face a similar problem with Proviso, who will run in the Mile if she goes for the Breeders’ Cup, in a year when the European runners - and Goldikova in particular - seem likely to dominate the turf races.
If there is going to be a defender of the Juvenile Turf then it is most likely to be Al Stall’s JB’s Thunder, who ran out an impressive winner for Shaun Bridgmohan in the Grade One Dixiana Breeders’ Futurity.
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