It was a bit of an oddity on Sept. 29 when WinStar, China Horse Club and SF Racing's Bulletin and the same owners' Improbable made successful unveilings on the same day on opposite ends of the country, and the flashy chestnut sons of the late City Zip met in the middle Friday to complete a stakes double. Bob Baffert-trained Improbable had already overcome an awkward trip to earn 'TDN Rising Star'-dom in the Street Sense one race earlier when Bulletin entered this inaugural running of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint off a seven-length romp in Gulfstream's Hollywood Beach S. over decidedly different turf conditions then he experienced that day in Florida. Well supported at 4-1, the $250,000 KEESEP yearling balked a bit loading into the gate, but flew out of it to seize early command with the filly Chelsea Cloisters (First Samurai) applying pressure through splits of :23.19 and :46.89. Bulletin came wide into the lane as Chelsea Cloisters clung to him, but by midstretch Bulletin had wore that foe down and spurted away by 2 3/4 lengths. European invaders So Perfect (Scat Daddy) and Queen of Bermuda (Ire) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}) made up what ground they could to finish third and fourth, respectively.
“He broke like a shot and put me in a real great position,” said pilot Javier Castellano after his ninth Breeders' Cup victory. “We were in good shape the whole way. I'm very impressed. He was very professional. This is a great way to start the Breeders' Cup.”
Trainer Todd Pletcher, whose five Breeders' Cup starters this weekend are surprisingly all on the turf, added, “Fantastic way to start. He broke really well and was sharp. He took it to them the whole way. It was a big race. We wanted to leave there running. He finished up nicely. Nothing like winning one.”
Friday, Churchill Downs
BREEDERS' CUP JUVENILE TURF SPRINT, $920,000, Churchill Downs, 11-2, 2yo, 5 1/2fT, 1:05.54, yl.
1–BULLETIN, 122, c, 2, by City Zip
1st Dam: Sue's Good News (GSW, $218,078), by Woodman
2nd Dam: Montera, by Easy Goer
3rd Dam: Mochila, by In Reality
($250,000 Ylg '17 KEESEP). O-WinStar Farm LLC, China Horse Club and SF Racing LLC; B-CresRan LLC (KY); T-Todd A Pletcher; J-Javier Castellano. $550,000. Lifetime Record: 2-2-0-0, $595,570. *1/2 to Tiz Miz Sue (Tiznow), GISW, $1,129,709.
2–Chelsea Cloisters, 119, f, 2, First Samurai–Postulant, by Pulpit. ($125,000 Ylg '17 FTKJUL). O-Hat Creek Racing; B-Alastar Thoroughbred Co. (KY); T-Wesley A. Ward. $170,000.
3–So Perfect, 119, f, 2, Scat Daddy–Hopeoverexperience, by Songandaprayer. ($400,000 Ylg '17 KEESEP). O-Michael B Tabor, Mrs John Magnier & Derrick Smith; B-Machmer Hall (KY); T-Aidan P O'Brien. $90,000.
Margins: 2 3/4, 1, 3/4. Odds: 4.30, 24.90, 10.10.
Also Ran: Queen of Bermuda (Ire), Big Drink of Water, Soldier's Call (GB), Strike Silver, Sergei Prokofiev, Pocket Dynamo, Stillwater Cove, Well Done Fox (GB), Moonlight Romance. Scratched: Comedy (Ire), Shang Shang Shang, Van Beethoven, Legends of War.
Click for the Equibase.com chart. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
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