Quality Road confirmed for Breeders’ Cup Classic
There may be questions to answer- such as can he really stay 10 furlongs – but Quality Road’s victory in the Grade One Woodward Stakes at Saturday was enough to make up Todd Pletcher’s mind.
The trainer will now prepare his colt for a crack at the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs on November 6th. Just how much his four-and-three-quarter-length beating of Mythical Power really proved is open to debate, none of the field had a right to be competitive at level weights on recent form, but it was enough to convince Pletcher to take Quality Road to Churchill without another run, which has worked well with the horse previously.
“That’s how you’d like to come into the biggest and most important race, doing what you do best,” commented Pletcher to the Daily Racing Form. “Seems like our horses tend to run their best races with a little bit of space in between.”
The question is whether Quality Road can truly cover the space between the furlong pole and the post in a 10-furlong race. His two attempts thus far (he never actually ran in last year’s Classic, having been withdraw before the start) have yielded a third place in the Travers Stakes and second in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, both times to Summer Bird.
Those races were run on a sloppy racetrack but, that aside, Quality Road has not really given the impression of finishing the Woodward strongly enough to make him a strong candidate over the longer distance, although Pletcher clearly disagrees. “The Jockey Club Gold Cup wasn’t a bad race,” he said. "I think he gets the mile-and-a-quarter. We just obviously would like to do it on a fast surface.
"I think there was a lot more in the tank, but based on the way he came back after the race he wasn’t hardly even blowing. I think he made the lead awfully easy, coasted in from the eighth pole. When you’re four-and-three-quarter lengths clear, it’s hard to ask for a whole lot more, but I think he was prepared to run a whole lot faster had it been necessary."
Mine That Bird, the 2009 Kentucky Derby winner, finished last of the seven in the Woodward. He was ridden closer to the pace than in recent races but faded badly through the last three furlongs, leaving trainer D Wayne Lukas to consider a drop in distance. "We got part of what we wanted, but we didn’t get the finish,” Lukas said. “I loved the way he laid into the race and showed that speed and everything. That was a new dimension for him, but we didn’t get the finish we wanted. I may try him short.”
Pletcher’s barn is clearly not short of talent and he took the Grade One Spinaway Stakes with R Heat Lightning. Pletcher saddled four in the race, of which the winner was the market outsider, but the filly – who was ridden by Garrett Gomez - came from off the pace to Alienation with a furlong to run and win by four lengths to give Pletcher his 36th winner at the meeting, a fifth Grade One and a fourth in the fourth Spinaway.
Pletcher is now thinking of R Heat Lightning to the Grade One Frizette Stakes at Belmont Park on Oct 9th.
By contrast Steve Asmussen has had a quieter time, and the defeat by Rachel Alexandra, in the Grade One Personal Ensign Stakes, was compounded the news that leading sprinter Majesticperfection has sustained a condylar fracture to his off-fore in a workout on Sunday morning that could be a career-ending injury.
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