Blue Devil Racing Stable's Come Dancing, a five-time graded stakes winner, on Sunday breezed three-eighths of a mile in :36 and galloped out a half-mile in :48 on a fast track at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., in her final work prior to a second run in the $1-million Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (G1) on Saturday.
“The clockers got her in all 12s (seconds),” trainer Carlos Martin said of the breeze, which had been scheduled for Monday. “I looked at the weather forecast and it is supposed to be 24 (degrees) in the morning and feel like 18, so the track may be frozen. I didn't want to get caught Tuesday or Wednesday not having been able to breeze.”
Come Dancing ran sixth in last year's Filly and Mare Sprint at Santa Anita, where she did not have a work over the track prior to the race.
“She came in there with the last group of horses from New York,” Martin said. “This is going to be her swan song, and we wanted to bring her in so she could get used to the weather here.”
Come Dancing has raced four times this year and comes into the Breeders' Cup off a victory in the Honorable Miss (G2) at Saratoga Sept. 6.
“With the uncertainty of the racing calendar because of the pandemic, we put her in a tough spot when we sent her to Oaklawn Park early for a two-turn Grade 1 race (the Apple Blossom),” Martin said. “The Vagrancy (G3 in which she was second) I thought was decent and the Ballerina (G1 in which she was fourth) was not bad. She had a tough trip in that one and people were writing her off, but I knew different.
“In the Honorable Miss, Irad (Ortiz Jr.) rode her and loved her. If Come Dancing wants to fire her 'A' race, I think she is as good as any horse in the country.”
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“American Pharoah winning the Classic was awesome. He was doing something that will probably never done again in many years, if ever.”
“Selfishly, we had a runner that year in the Distaff, Curalina. She put up a really game effort to be third behind Stopchargingmaria and Stellar Wind. That was my most vivid memory.”
“I had 2 1/2 to get from Lexington, Ky., to Shelbyville, Ind., to make it from the end of American Pharoah's Classic win to Bucchero's first stakes win as a 3-year-old in the To Much Coffee at Indiana Grand. I'm a big planner, and I was sitting next to my partner saying, 'I don't think we can wait until American Pharoah crosses the finish line.' We had to make a beeline to the car because other people would be trying to leave. I had so much excitement for American Pharoah's race, and I thank him for winning it so convincingly, because we legitimately headed into the tunnel when he passed us, and we were able to get to the car. We arrived in Shelbyville as Bucchero was walking into the paddock. It was the first stakes win for Ironhorse.”
“American Pharoah putting on a show in the final race of his career, and destroying the field. He was just a magical horse. I was a big fan of his, and to watch him go out to Keeneland and dominate the way he did, and the reception he got, it was just a special, special day.”
“Donegal Racing had over 125 people at the races that day, and I think that was my biggest memory. It was the year Keen Ice won the Travers, beating American Pharoah, and we, of course, were hoping that he'd repeat that feat in the Classic. That wasn't meant to be, but it was still a very exciting summer and fall of racing.”