Matt Brocklebank singles out his best bet on Future Stars Friday at Keeneland, with a familiar face backed to return to the Breeders' Cup winners' circle.
It’s very rare that champion US trainer Chad Brown – who has 15 Breeders’ Cup victories to his name already – is underestimated by anyone so it’s slightly surprising to see EDITOR AT LARGE (20/1 888Sport 1/5 1,2,3, 16s General) priced up as she is on Future Stars Friday at Keeneland.
The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies’ Turf has been Brown’s domain since the race’s inception when striking with his only runner, Maram, and while he didn’t claim top spot for six years after that initial score in 2008, he’s won four of the last six editions thanks, in part, to some shrewd European-bred purchases.
During that period Lady Eli, Rushing Fall, New Money Honey and Newspaperofrecord (by Lope De Vega, same sire at Editor At Large) have all gone on to be Grade One stars later in their career and it’s worth noting all bar Rushing Fall went into their two-year-old Breeders’ Cup championships following the Miss Grillo Stakes at Belmont in early-October.
That’s the route this year’s sole candidate has taken and while the aforementioned trio all won the Grade Two stepping stone en route, Editor At Large only managed third behind quite striking winner Plum Ali, who reopposes this weekend and is much shorter in the betting at 11/2.
But given the discrepancy in price, Editor At Large has to be the play here as she looked totally inconvenienced by the trappy, five-runner field and sedate tempo last time – the first quarter-mile in 24.81 and first half in 48.06 seriously slow by anyone’s standards.
Plum Ali was at the back early on too but whereas she made a move on the inside to pick up an ideal slot just behind the leader, Manny Franco decided to bide his time and kept Editor At Large to the outside. In short, the winner got first run and the race was effectively over at the top of the straight, but there was no disgrace in the closing effort of the third, who kept on and just missed out for second in a head-bob.
She has just over two lengths to make up on Plum Ali and stall 14 might not be ideal, but Javier Castellano – who has ridden two of Brown’s last three winners in this event and comes in for the ride this weekend – will be content to sit and wait for the guaranteed pace to collapse.
Plum Ali might not be far off it, while warm favourite Aunt Pearl is another almost certain to get embroiled in the early action, along with Royal Approval and the stretching-out duo of Miss Amulet and Campanelle.
The race should, in theory, be teed up really nicely for something closing late on and while Aidan O’Brien’s Mother Earth and the Simon Callaghan-trained Madone are both respected in that regard, they’re both shorter than the selection who looks capable of taking a massive step up for Brown on the big day.
With the European cap on, it’ll be disappointing if the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf doesn’t come back across the Pond.
Cadillac has been on the radar for this for a while now but it’s hard to argue Jessie Harrington's colt is exceptionally well priced at 11/2, while the juice is being squeezed out of Ralph Beckett’s New Mandate who looked a potential play at double-figure odds as he's clearly still on an upward curve.
Sealiway – 10s at the time of writing - came closest to making the staking plan as he completely blew the Lagardere apart with an eight-length romp, and may yet prove those who felt it was a bit of a freak display to be wrong.
He’ll get a good position from stall one and providing he can avoid the early scrum on the first bend, might be capable of a huge run for trainer Frederic Rossi.
A positive word too for Lipizzaner, the son of Uncle Mo who looked to win in spite of the deep surface at Doncaster last month.
He has bags of experience, including a close second to subsequent Group One winner Lucky Vega in a Naas maiden earlier in the year, and is just the type to represent O’Brien well in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint.
He could win but it looks a potentially chaotic race and the horse is unlikely to be carrying my cash despite being available at 14/1 with a couple of firms.
Posted at 1700 GMT on 05/11/20
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