Breeders' Cup preview: Best of the home team at Del Mar

Let’s start with Future Stars Friday and the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile itself.

We have a genuine future star in here in Godolphin’s East Avenue. He’s been spectacular in two starts to date, being an eight-length winner on debut at Ellis Park. He then absolutely dismantled a Grade One field at Keeneland last time when he went from the front.

He did it so easily and widened under no more than a hand ride and was eased right down at the end. He is to me a horse that appears to have everything. He has tactical speed, a high cruising speed and a change of gear when needed.

He is related to a horse we know very well from recent Breeders’ Cups in Cody’s Wish and I’m struggling to get away from him. I really, really like this horse.

'She’s the best filly in America'

Thorpedo Anna has been superb going up through the ranks. She only made her debut towards the end of last year and came into her own at the start of 2024, winning a Grade Two at Oaklawn and then bolted up in the Kentucky Oaks.

She followed that with an equally impressive win in the Acorn Stakes and then won the Coaching Club American Oaks. That tempted Kenny Mcpeek to throw her in against the boys in the Travers in August.

That’s a really big test for a three-year-old filly and she absolutely pushed Fierceness all the way, going down by a head and fighting all the way to the line. Then she came back to win the Cotillion Stakes against her own sex.

She was backing up only four weeks after that massive Travers win and was 1/10 and only won it by a neck. I think there’s a possibility she bounced that day, but she managed to get the job done.

I think she towers over the Distaff field. She’s an odds-on favourite but an odds-on favourite for a reason. She’s the best filly in America and she’s probably the most likely winner across the two days.

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