Breeders’ Cup Dirt Dozen Series Returns in 2023

The Breeders' Cup Dirt Dozen, an incentive-based participation bonus program for horsemen pointing runners to the dirt races in the Breeders' Cup World Championships, will return this season. Launched in 2022, the series awards bonus credits funded by the Breeders' Cup for first through third-place finishes in each of 12 existing graded stakes races scheduled from May through October at six tracks throughout the United States. Horsemen can use those credits toward entry fees for one of the six Breeders' Cup World Championships dirt races.

In Dirt Dozen races in the $2-million Breeders' Cup race divisions–which includes the GI Longines Distaff, GI Qatar Racing Sprint, GI FanDuel Juvenile and GI NetJets Juvenile Fillies–the bonus tier is allocated at $30,000 for first, $15,000 for second, and $7,500 for third.

In Dirt Dozen races in the $1-million Breeders' Cup race divisions–the GI PNC F/M Sprint and the GI Big Ass Fans Dirt Mile–the bonus tier will award $15,000 for first, $7,500 for second, and $3,750 for third.

The Dirt Dozen program begins May 6 with the GI Derby City Distaff at Churchill Downs. The first three finishers in the race will earn credits toward entry fees for a potential start in the F/M Sprint. The program concludes Oct. 1 with the GI Zenyatta S. at Santa Anita, where the first three finishers in the race will earn credits toward entry fees for a potential start in the Distaff.

“After a successful launch in 2022, we are happy to again present our innovative Dirt Dozen program,” said Dora Delgado, Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Officer of Breeders' Cup Limited. “Last year, many horsemen who took advantage of those credits toward entry fees for our dirt races were rewarded at the World Championships, and we look forward to extending the same incentive to connections who are targeting a start at Santa Anita Park in November.”

For a complete list of races in the series, click here.

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Into Mischief Filly Continues Upward Trajectory in Zenyatta

Lightly raced Private Mission handled older foes with aplomb Sunday, earning a guaranteed spot in the starting gate for the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff in the process. A debut winner sprinting here nearly a year ago, the bay was a speed-and-fade fourth at odds-on in the following month's Desi Arnaz S. at Del Mar and subsequently went missing. She reappeared to annex a local optional claimer in June, and took to two turns emphatically when romping by 6 1/2 lengths in Del Mar's GIII Torrey Pines S. Aug. 21.

Keeping longshot Samurai Charm (First Samurai) in her sights early, the bay took a clear advantage entering the home bend and looked like the winner every step of the way after that. As Time Goes By completed the exacta and a big weekend for Bob Baffert that also included victories in the GI Awesome Again S. and GI American Pharoah S.

“I'm happy to run one-two,” Baffert said. “Private Mission, I'm glad I stayed home with her. I decided this would be best for her with the Breeders' Cup in mind, we didn't want to stress her.  She's on the improve, getting better and better. I'm really happy with the way both fillies ran.”

Private Mission was scratched out of last Saturday's GI Cotillion S. at Parx.

“She broke well and got herself into the race,” jockey Flavien Prat said of his winning trip. “She relaxed well and took a nice breather going to the three eighths pole and ran good when I asked her to make her move. I thought this race was better than last time, for sure.”

Sunday, Santa Anita
ZENYATTA S.-GII, $201,500, Santa Anita, 10-3, 3yo/up, f/m,
1 1/16m, 1:43.77, ft.
1–PRIVATE MISSION, 120, f, 3, by Into Mischief
                1st Dam: Private Gift (SW, $212,248), by Unbridled
                2nd Dam: Private Status, by Alydar
                3rd Dam: Miss Eva (Arg), by Con Brio II
($750,000 Ylg '19 FTSAUG). O-Baoma Corporation; B-Mt.
Brilliant Broodmares I LLC (KY); T-Bob Baffert; J-Flavien Prat.
$120,000. Lifetime Record: 5-4-0-0, $256,800. *1/2 to Secret
Someone (A.P. Indy), MSW & GSP, $409,301. Werk Nick
Rating: A+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–As Time Goes By, 124, f, 4, American Pharoah–Take Charge
Lady, by Dehere. O-Michael B. Tabor, Mrs. John Magnier &
Derrick Smith; B-Orpendale & Chelston (KY); T-Bob Baffert.
$40,000.
3–Miss Bigly, 122, m, 5, Gemologist–Miss Puzzle (Aus), by
Citidancer (Ire). ($120,000 Wlg '16 KEENOV; $20,000 Ylg '17
KEESEP). O-Agave Racing Stable & Rockin Robin Racing Stables;
B-SF Bloodstock LLC (KY); T-Philip D'Amato. $24,000.
Margins: 2 1/4, 2 1/4, 6HF. Odds: 1.10, 1.70, 17.80.
Also Ran: Stellar Sound, Lady Kate, Samurai Charm, Miss Stormy D, California Kook. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

Pedigree Notes:
Private Mission is one of 45 graded stakes winners for leading sire Into Mischief–three of which have been out of Unbridled mares, led by champion female sprinter Covfefe. Important broodmare sire Unbridled is responsible for the dams of 43 graded winners, including the likes of Tapit, Orb and Shackleford.

The winner's dam was a two-turn stakes winner on the dirt at Louisiana Downs. A half-sister to 2000 GI Kentucky Oaks heroine Secret Status (A.P. Indy), she sold to Greg Goodman's Mt. Brilliant for $2.3 million while in foal to A.P. Indy at the 2008 Fasig-Tipton November sale. Another A.P. Indy daughter of Private Gift, MSW and GSP Secret Someone, was represented by a $1-million Into Mischief colt that sold to Mike Ryan at the recent Keeneland September sale. Private Gift's daughter Gift List (Bernardini) is the dam of GISW Dunbar Road (Quality Road), who is expected to contest next Saturday's GI Juddmonte Spinster S., another prep for the Distaff.

Private Gift's 2-year-old filly Batik (Honor Code), a $240,000 KEESEP grad, has been working regularly at Monmouth Park. The 19-year-old mare was given a year off after foaling Batik, but produced a Candy Ride (Arg) colt Apr. 1 and was bred back to Uncle Mo.

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Private Mission Wins Zenyatta, Earns Distaff Berth In Breeders’ Cup

Heavily favored Private Mission, who was originally scheduled to run out of town last weekend, stayed home and was a convincing 2 ¼-length winner of Sunday's Grade 2, $200,000 Zenyatta Stakes at Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif.  Trained by Bob Baffert and ridden by Flavien Prat, Private Mission got 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.77 and earned a fees-paid berth into the $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff on Nov. 6 as the Zenyatta is a Breeders' Cup “Win & You're In” Challenge Race qualifier.

Baffert, who opted to stay home with the 3-year-old Into Mischief filly instead of running in the Grade 1 Cotillion Stakes near Philadelphia on Sept. 26, ran one-two in the Zenyatta as his As Time Goes By completed the exacta.

Blessed with an abundance of early speed, Private Mission sat just off of pacesetter Samurai Charm in the run up the backside.  Prat stepped on the gas leaving the three-furlong marker and Private Mission enjoyed a 2 ½-length advantage turning for home in what appeared to be her best race yet in career start number five.

“I'm happy to run one-two,” said Baffert.  “Private Mission, I'm glad I stayed home with her.  I decided this would be best for her with the Breeders' Cup in mind, we didn't want to stress her.  She's on the improve, getting better and better.  I'm really happy with the way both fillies ran.”

A 6 ½-length winner going a flat mile in the G3 Torrey Pines Stakes at Del Mar on Aug. 21, Private Mission was off at even money in a field of eight fillies and mares three and up and paid $4.20, $2.40 and $2.20.

“She broke well and got herself into the race,” said Prat, who rode her to her Del Mar win on Aug. 21.  “She relaxed well and took a nice breather going to the three-eighths pole and ran good when I asked her to make her move.  I thought this race was better than last time, for sure.”

Owned by Baoma Corporation, Private Mission, who is out of the Unbridled mare Private Gift, picked up $120,000 for the win, boosting her earnings to $256,800 while getting her fourth win from five outs. She was bred in Kentucky by Mt. Brilliant Broodmares LLC and sold for $750,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling Sale.

Ridden by John Velazquez, As Time Goes By kept to her task gamely late and in a much improved effort, finished 2 ¼ lengths in front of Miss Bigly.  The second choice at 5-2, she paid $2.80 and $2.20.

Miss Bigly, mid-pack early, was easily third, finishing 6 ½ lengths in front of Stellar Sound.  Ridden by Juan Hernandez, Miss Bigly paid $3.40 to show.

Fractions on the race were 23.21, 46.87, 1:11.45 and 1:36.89.

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Santa Anita’s Blockbuster Opening Weekend Another Step Towards Full Strength

As springboard–or tripwire–before the ultimate Breeders' Cup showdown at Del Mar this November, Santa Anita's opening weekend sure ticks a lot of boxes.

“Really happy with the job my staff did putting all these races together,” said Santa Anita racing secretary, Chris Merz, on Thursday morning. “Stakes coordinator James Kasparoff did an outstanding job.”

In all, there are seven Breeders' Cup “Win and You're In” races. The three on Friday–the GI American Pharoah S., GII Chandelier S., and the Speakeasy S.–are geared around the sport's young blood. The Saturday and Sunday qualifiers–the GI Awesome Again S., the GI Rodeo Drive S., GII Santa Anita Sprint Championship S., and the GII Zenyatta S.–are for the adults in the room.

This is on top of a further seven stakes over the weekend, including the GII Eddie D S., the GII City of Hope Mile S., the GII John Henry S., and the GIII Chillingworth S.

“We've a gigantic weekend ahead of us,” Merz added. “The horsemen, the trainers did a great job supporting what we're offering in the book. The owners are excited. Hopefully, we're putting good cards together that the fans can enjoy and that leave the bettors scratching their heads.”

Entries over the first two days boast an average field size of roughly 8.3. The trick will be to keep the momentum going for the rest of Santa Anita's 16-day fall meet (and beyond), especially after a spring-meet that wore thin near the end, horse inventory wise.

After the GI Santa Anita Derby, for example, the track carded a rare two-day race week.

“We've still got a ways to go–I think our last step will be to get back to four-days a week,” said Merz. “This place has been through a lot over the last two-and-a-half years, with the animal crisis that we've had and obviously COVID.” The purses, however, have been increasing, he added. “We're getting back to full strength.”

The Santa Anita inventory is currently around 1650 to 1700 horses–roughly 100 horses higher than this period last year, Merz said.

The track's “Ship & Win” program–which started last December and provided a $3,000 bonus and a 35% increase in purse earnings for eligible shippers–has been instrumental in growing those numbers, said Merz.

Santa Anita tweaked the ingredients in May, to better align it with Del Mar's longer established Ship & Win program. For example, eligible out-of-state horses which made their first start in the Del Mar Ship & Win program get the green-light for the same benefits in their first start at Santa Anita.

According to Merz, Del Mar lured roughly 180 Ship & Win horses this summer. Of those, he said, roughly 140 have subsequently found home at Santa Anita.

Much fanfare has heralded the return after a more than two-year hiatus of the downhill turf course–an indicator of sorts of the track's (and the state's) increasing focus on the turf. During the most recent Santa Anita winter-spring meet, close to 50% of the races were on turf–10 years prior, the number of turf races at the track was nearer 30%.

“With turf options right now, they're very dependable for the trainers and the owners to get them some action and to run,” Merz explained.

Use of the downhill course has been suspended since the Peter Miller-trained Arms Runner (Overdriven) suffered a fatal breakdown crossing the dirt in the 2019 GIII San Simeon S.–an accident that coincided with a maelstrom of negative attention focused on the track.

Between 2011 and 2019, the downhill turf course garnered an equine fatality rate of 2.81 per 1000 starts–only marginally higher than that for the turf as a whole (2.72).

The GII Eddie D S., on opening day, sets the ball rolling, with other downhill races the rest of the weekend including the Rodeo Drive S. and Unzip Me S. The course will also be used for a further two Cal-bred stakes on Oct. 16-17.

“And I'm actually writing our condition book now, so, we'll have a couple more at the end of our meet.” Merz added. “I'm just looking forward to seeing the downhill back–I think that's what everybody's excited for. It's been a long two years but everybody's ready to go.”

One of the aforementioned shippers is the Larry Rivelli-trained One Timer (Trappe Shot), who lines up a leading fancy in Friday's Speakeasy S. on the turf. “We're going into it perfect,” said Rivelli. “There's absolutely no excuse.”

One Timer has a perfect two-for-two record, breaking his maiden by more than 12 lengths at Arlington in June before following up in the Victoria S. at Woodbine a month later, winning by 3 3/4 lengths handily.

“We've always been high on him from day one when we started breezing him and working him,” said Rivelli of One Timer, a $21,000 purchase at last year's Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Sale.

One Timer is yet to race on the turf, but the trainer has let the gelding stretch his legs on the surface at Arlington a couple times, under regular rider E.T. Baird. “His quote was, 'he's a lawnmower,'” said Rivelli, of Baird's aphoristic quip. “So, let's hope he likes the turf as much as the jock thinks he does.”

On his debut, One Timer reared in the gates, and was a tad slow away last time–a sticky little problem the team has since worked on.

“He should be good now, believe me,” said Rivelli. “We've spent a lot of time on that. We worked him from the gates the other day and it was just a mind-blowing work. Just unbelievable.”

If the stars align, One Timer will remain in California until Del Mar. “I'm pretty confident he's going to run good, and so, that would be the plan–keep him there and run at the Breeders' Cup.”

If so, it would constitute a fifth runner at the Breeders' Cup for the trainer.

“I've run four horses. Three ran fourth and one ran fifth,” said Rivelli. “We've danced a dance, we're just trying to break through. I would say this has been my best shot so far.”

 

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