Todd Pletcher, this week's Green Group Guest of the Week on the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland, has 12 Breeders' Cup wins, a total that figures to be on the rise next month. Pletcher said he will have at least eight horses running in the Breeders' Cup, a group headed by his dynamic duo of Nest (Curlin) and Malathaat (Curlin) in the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff, Life Is Good (Into Mischief) in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic, Forte (Violence) in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile, Annapolis (War Front) in the GI Breeders' Cup Mile and Chocolate Gelato (Practical Joke) in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. Last but certainly not least, Pletcher will send out Major Dude (Bolt d'Oro) in the GI Juvenile Turf and Happy Saver (Super Saver) in the Classic. He said that Lost Ark (Violence) is a possible starter in the Juvenile.
“At this point, it certainly could be,” Pletcher said when asked if this is the best Breeders' Cup lineup he has ever had. “We couldn't be more pleased with the group that we have.”
Pletcher is particularly strong in ths Distaff where he will likely send out the favorite and the second choice. Both Nest and Malathaat will come into the Breeders' Cup off of wins over the weekend. Nest won the GII Beldame S. and Malathaat won the GI Spinster. Who is better? Pletcher said he doesn't know.
“I truly don't know which one is better,” he said. “I think they're both spectacular fillies. They have so much in common, being by Curlin and out of A.P. Indy mares. They have terrific dispositions and are easy to train. The one difference that we know that maybe not everyone else can see is that Malathaat tends to run to her competition a little bit. She knows when she makes the lead and tends to idle when she does. Nest has that unique ability to cruise and then quicken, like we saw in Alabama, the Coaching Club and the other day in Beldame. She's head and head and then, boom, she's five in front. It will be interesting to see how the race unfolds, how much pace is in there. Malathaat will probably be in a position where she has to come after Nest at some point.”
Overshadowed by Flightline (Tapit), Life Is Good is somewhat flying under the radar when it comes to the Classic. That's partially because his Beyer number dipped to a 97 when he won the GI Woodward S.
“The Woodward was the only two-turn race of the day and it was run on a sloppy track that was changing throughout the day,” Pletcher said. “I honestly don't know if the Beyer figure was correct or not. If you look at ThoroGraph or Ragozin he ran much faster than that. He went the final three-eighths in 36 1/5, which is pretty hard to do no matter what the circumstances are. I think that Law Professor (Constitution) ran the best race of his life to be second and it was another 10 lengths back to Keepmeinmind (Laoban). He didn't win by 19 1/4 lengths like Flightline did, and I think that was the comparison everyone was looking for. But we are running back in five weeks so we wanted to be ready to run and ready to win but also be thoughtful that we had five weeks to go to the Classic.”
Pletcher is hoping that Life Is Good gets the kind of fast track in the Classic that he appears to prefer.
“Life is Good's weapon is his speed, his ability to go fast and keep going,” he said. “What I am looking for is to hopefully get him on a track for the first time in a while that is a really fast track, a true glib surface. The entire meet at Aqueduct the track has been very slow. Prior to that, Saratoga was a very deep, demanding track. In Dubai, we caught a really deep, demanding surface. I am hoping at Keeneland we get a speed-favoring track, one that, for the first time in while, will play to his strengths.”
Elsewhere on the show, panelists Randy Moss, Zoe Cadman and Bill Finley voiced their own opinion on the Nest-versus-Malathaat debate. When asked who is the horse to beat, there were two votes for Nest and one for Malathaat. The podcast, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, the KTOB, Lane's End, XBTV, Three Chimneys, West Point Thoroughbreds and Legacy Bloodstock, also included a deep dive into last week's major races and a look ahead at what's in the offing this weekend, including a shout-out to the jumpers who will vie Saturday at Far Hills in the GI Grand National.
Click here to listen to the podcast and click here to watch.
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