Awake At Midnyte – With her first Breeders' Cup start quickly approaching, Reddam Racing's Awake At Midnyte continues to train well, galloping 1 1/8 miles Thursday morning at Keeneland under exercise rider Connor Murray. Trainer Doug O'Neill is sending the filly out into a star-studded Longines Distaff field on Saturday where she will be running entirely against Grade 1 winners.
“She's got a great mind,” O'Neill said. “She's a good-sized filly, but she's really quiet in the stall and really comfortable in her own skin. On the track, she trains like a good filly. She loves to exercise. She's very willing and giving so she checks all the boxes for a Grade 1-winning type of filly so we're hoping that shows up (on Saturday).”
While the 3-year-old filly is multiple graded stakes placed, she will be trying for her first graded stakes win this weekend. At morning line odds of 30-1, Awake At Midnyte will be breaking from post five under Mario Gutierrez.
Blue Stripe – Pozo De Luna's Blue Stripe visited the paddock and galloped 1 1/2 miles with jockey Hector Berrios aboard Friday morning for trainer Marcelo Polanco.
Berrios, who will be riding in his second Breeders' Cup, rode Blue Stripe for the first time in the Clement L. Hirsch, a “Win and You're In” Challenge race that earned a spot in the starting gate for Blue Stripe, a half-sister to 2019 Distaff winner Blue Prize.
“From Day One, I could see she was very special,” Berrios said. “She does everything very nicely.”
Berrios has one other Breeders' Cup mount Saturday with that coming on Super Ocho in the Qatar Racing Sprint.
Clairiere/Society – Trainer Steve Asmussen sent both Clairiere and Society out for early morning gallops Thursday as they finish up their preparations for the Distaff. Both fillies have been stabled at Keeneland since the end of September with Clairiere having five works and Society having four works over the host track leading into Saturday's race.
“It's tremendous field with tremendous horses and we love having them to run in it,” Asmussen said. “With that being said, there are variables running at Keeneland. I think with the brief Spring Meet and brief Fall Meet, you just don't get a great feel for exactly where you want to be in a race all the time and get them used to it.”
Malathaat/Nest – Shadwell Stable's Malathaat and Repole Stable, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Michael House's Nest both had 1 1/2-mile gallops Friday morning and then schooled in the paddock after training hours.
Amelia Green was on Malathaat, who went out at 8 o'clock and Nest followed at 8:45 with Nora McCormack up.
The two fillies are a combined four-for-four at Keeneland with both having won the Central Bank Ashland here in the spring of their 3yo campaigns.
They never have raced against each other on the track, but with a combined 2022 record of 12-8-4-0, it seemed inevitable.
“That possibility showed up on our radar about the start of Saratoga,” trainer Todd Pletcher said.
Nest captured two Grade 1s at Saratoga and Malathaat added a third Grade 1 for the barn with a victory in the Personal Ensign.
Search Results – Klaravich Stables' Distaff contender Search Results had a routine gallop of about one mile on Keeneland's main track Thursday morning with trainer Chad Brown observing. She has been based at Keeneland since early October and had her fourth and final work over the surface Oct. 29, going five furlongs in 1:01 1/5. Flavien Prat rides from post seven of eight in the Distaff, in which six of her seven competitors are G1 winners.
Secret Oath – Hall of trainer D. Wayne Lukas said Thursday that he does not think Briland Farm's Secret Oath should be 15-1 on the morning line for the Breeders' Cup Distaff and trotted out one of his favorite lines: “People have opinions, horses have the facts.”
Secret Oath is winless in four Grade 1 starts since her victory in the Kentucky Oaks May 6. She was fourth against males in the Preakness, had two well-beaten seconds to Distaff favorite Nest at Saratoga and was third in the Cotillion at Parx. Lukas said he is confident his 3-year-old daughter of Arrogate is ready to face the strong field in the Distaff.
“She's better right now,” Lukas said. “That little break we just gave her, it really helped her. I predicted that all year, that her next year will be her best year. So, the end of the fall, this late, November, it's starting to show up. She's so much stronger in her gallops. If I send her around there a mile and a half or two miles, she handles that now so much better than she did back in June.”
The Distaff could turn out to be Secret Oath's final start for Lukas. She is entered in the Fasig-Tipton's Night of the Stars sale Sunday.
Secret Oath galloped 1 ½ miles Thursday morning and Lukas said exercise rider Mickealle Michel told him she handles the track well.
Lukas is the career leader in Breeders' Cup victories and pointed out that his most recent winner was Take Charge Brandi, who won the 2014 Juvenile Fillies at 61-1.
“I'm confident, but I have great respect for the competition,” Lukas said. “When you are a horse trainer, you can be real confident in your horse, but you have to respect the others and you have to have a reality check that maybe you're not as good as they are.
“Most trainers are poor handicappers, and I'm one of them, but when you train as long as I have you have to say, 'OK, my horse is as good as I think I can make her and I wouldn't change anything Saturday.' The reality is, is she as good as two or three of the others? She might, on our best day not be able to beat them. Now Nest, we've been in the arena with her and she can't afford to lose to us again. If she wants to be champion, she's got to beat us here. If we beat her in the Breeders' Cup and we have the Oaks on our resume, you guys will have to take a hard look at this as the next champion.”
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