Breeders' Cup 2022 profiles: Home hopefuls including Flightline, Cave Rock and Cody's Wish

CHOCOLATE GELATO (Todd Pletcher) – Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies

The Juvenile Fillies on the Dirt looks wide open, so what better race to start with than the Frizette Stakes, a contest that has found the winner of the Breeders’ Cup race in five of the last 10 years?

Indeed, four of the last five Juvenile Fillies winners ran in the Frizette, with both Jaywalk and Echo Zulu doing the double, although this year’s renewal was of course run at Aqueduct due to the construction work going on at Belmont. On a sloppy track Chocolate Gelato came from off the pace to justify favouritism under Irad Ortiz Jr, taking things up at the top of the stretch before running out a one-length winner over You’re My Girl.

The daughter of Practical Joke shipped to Keeneland from New York a few weeks ago as she bids to become Pletcher’s first winner of the Juvenile Fillies, remarkably, seeing as he’s won every other juvenile race at the meeting at least once.

CODY’S WISH (Bill Mott) – Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile

“It’s a different type of race for him,” Hall of Famer Bill Mott said in a Breeders’ Cup conference call on Wednesday. “Maybe we could add some dirt on the end of that chute at Keeneland and stretch it out to a one-turn mile.”

Five from five over a mile on Dirt, you would think the Big Ass Fans-sponsored contest would be the ideal slot for the son of Curlin, but two turns for the first time asks a different question of Cody’s Wish. Mind you, seven furlongs against Steve Asmussen’s star sprinter Jackie’s Warrior asked a different question of him, too, and he had all the answers as he swooped late to win the Grade 1 Forego Stakes by a length and a quarter at odds of 8/1, the hot 3/20 favourite having to settle for second.

A bit of a slow-burner, he finished his three-year-old campaign, this time last year, with a couple of Allowance Race victories at Churchill Downs, but 12 months on he’s in the big league. And despite those two-turn concerns, the Godolphin-owned colt is edging favouritism heading into race week.

DELIGHT (Jonathan Thomas) – Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf

Europe or America? The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf looks tough to call.

It has been the home team all the way ever since Charlie Hills’ Chriselliam sprinted clear of Testa Rossi at Santa Anita way back in 2013, with Lady Eli paving the way for the Chad Brown era of domination the year after that. Europeans have been edged out the last three renewals, but Meditate and Midnight Mile head a strong challenge this time around and there’s a good chance the prize will be heading back over the Atlantic for the first time in the best part of a decade.

But if the Americans win it again, Delight could be the one. Owned by George Strawbridge, he’s not the only familiar face connected with the filly to European racing fans, as she’s by freshman sire Mendelssohn, Aidan O’Brien’s Juvenile Turf winner and Breeders’ Cup Classic fifth.

She has this meeting in her pedigree, then, and Delight laid her own Breeders’ Cup claims down at Keeneland on October 7, when she sprinted away to land the Grade 2 Jessamine Stakes under Luis Saez in great style. She looks the main threat to the Euros in this one.

EPICENTER (Steve Asmussen) – Breeders’ Cup Classic

Steve Asmussen’s quest for the Kentucky Derby goes on.

This year he must’ve thought he had it, with Epicenter sent off the 41/10 favourite for the Run for the Roses. Heading into the last quarter mile he did have it, only for 81/1 outsider Rich Strike to come and spoil the party. With no Rich Strike in the Preakness at Pimlico, the second leg of the Triple Crown, Epicenter was sent off 6/5 favourite but he got further back than ideal and couldn’t reel in Early Voting. Having raced closer to the pace than the others involved in the finish in the Kentucky Derby, he had been unlucky trip-wise and could easily have had one or two Triple Crown races in the satchel granted a bit better luck.

It wasn’t to be, but it all came together for him in the Travers, a clean and clear trip enabling him to justify even-money favouritism as he won by over five lengths, the Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike managing only fourth.

Of course, Flightline looks a formidable rival here. But as we saw with Baaeed at Ascot, reputations are there to be shot at and if the heavy favourite did underperform for whatever reason, Epicenter looks best placed to take advantage. And for Asmussen, this particular Breeders’ Cup Classic would be some compensation for missing out on the Kentucky Derby again.

FLIGHTLINE (John Sadler) – Breeders’ Cup Classic

With Baaeed in Europe and Flightline in America, 2022 has been some year for the thoroughbred.

William Haggas’ Baaeed threatened to get towards Frankel-type Timeform figures, his Juddmonte International success at York certainly inching him that way, but defeat on his final career start in the Champion Stakes ended such chat. God he was good – but not that good.

Yet across the pond there is Flightline, by Tapit out of Feathered, expertly handled by John Sadler, and the number crunchers are getting towards best-ever territory with him. In some ways he’s similar to Baaeed – neither raced as juveniles for starters – and both got even better as they raced and stepped up in trip. Flightline has only had the five races, but he has never been even remotely tested by another rival, winning the five by a staggering combined margin of 62 & ¾ lengths.

His most recent performance was the absolute jaw dropper. Going into the TVG Pacific Classic at Del Mar he had 10 furlongs and two turns for the first time in his life, but he would’ve smashed Candy Ride’s track record had Flavien Prat not started to ease him down towards the winning post. This year’s Dubai World Cup winner, Country Grammar, was a staggering 19 and a half lengths adrift in second.

The racing world holds it breath to see what this monster can do in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, at a track he has yet to race on before.