After a profession combined in with some spectacular wins and top-level finishes that generally left him questioning if he would ever attain the head of racing, Scylla’s aggressive method was rewarded with an explosive front-running rating within the $2 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Del Mar on Nov. 1.
As anticipated pacesetter and favourite Seismic Magnificence staggered out of the gate, Scylla and jockey Junior Alvarado seized the benefit and by no means appeared again inside Distaff.
There have been no plans to take the lead early on, and on paper it appeared like Seismic Magnificence, current winner of the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes offered by Oaktree, would take the lead. However every little thing modified within the early levels of the race. Seismic Magnificence, Nitrogen, Clicquot and Cilla lined up in 4 vehicles throughout the monitor beneath the wire for the primary time, then Alvarado put Cilla within the lead on the rail.
In one of the crucial spectacular efforts of the Breeders’ Cup weekend, that call would show right as Scylla settled in nicely, opening up a three-length lead within the straight and lengthening that benefit to five-and-a-half lengths on the wire.
“She made a really sharp break in the present day and the primary time I believed to myself, ‘We’re in a great spot,’ she went previous the wire. She’s going fairly quick, however at that time I stated, ‘I can not drag her and put her behind the opposite horses,'” stated Alvarado, who additionally rode Scylla within the lead-up to 3rd place within the G1 Juddmonte Spinster Stakes on Oct. 5 at Keeneland.
Coach Invoice Mott and profitable proprietor Juddmonte made the appropriate race determination for Scylla, who completed fourth in final 12 months’s PNC Financial institution Breeders’ Cup Filly Dash and might be aiming for a similar seven-furlong race this 12 months.
“We appeared on the discipline and determined this was the race we should always go to,” Mott stated. “It labored.”
Mott additionally stated that since Spinster is a vital race for Juddmonte, they named Scylla for that 1 1/8-mile check and when she ran third there, it made sense to maneuver on to Distaff.
Scylla, who had been knocking on the door all season and had consecutive Grade 1 finishes within the two races earlier than Distaff, was not denied a spot in Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Championship. She accomplished the 1 1/8 mile in 1:48.07 on the quick monitor, incomes her first Group 1 win after ending at this degree the earlier 4 instances. The Breeders’ Cup win locations Scylla on the Eclipse Award as a favourite for champion outdated filth filly, however this victory marks her first win of the season in a division that additionally considers 2024 Horse of the 12 months Torpedo Anna.
“We’re extraordinarily happy,” stated Garrett O’Rourke, Juddmonte USA Common Supervisor. “There have been plenty of G1 winners over the previous few years, however I felt that as a racehorse they weren’t nearly as good as Scylla. It was a disgrace that I could not obtain it, however it will be an incredible day to do it!”
The Breeders’ Cup will even go a great distance in figuring out this 12 months’s champion 3-year-old filly. High 3-year-old filly Nitrogen completed second within the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, a half-length behind third place Liga Pink. This 12 months, Nitrogen boasts 4 grade wins on turf, a G1 end on turf, and a snug victory within the G1 Alabama Stakes hosted by Keeneland Gross sales on filth at Saratoga Race Course. In 2024, Nitrogen was named Canada’s Champion Two-12 months-Previous Filly.
“I am so pleased with her. She ran as quick as she may,” Nitrogen coach Mark Kass stated. “I feel we already know who the 3-year-old filly champion is. That is what I wished for her. I feel she gained it in the present day.”
Rega Pink gained the Grade 3 Delaware Handicap in September, incomes him his first Grade 1 place. Coach D. Whitworth Beckman stated he was happy with Liga Pink and stated his subsequent run might be within the Grade 3 Falls Metropolis Handicap at Churchill Downs on November twenty seventh. Clicquot completed in fourth place. Favourite Seismic Magnificence had a neater time beneath the wire and completed eleventh out of 12 horses.
Distaff’s win was one other large win for one of the crucial profitable horse households in the US in the present day. Scylla is lacking her first protection in opposition to a number of G1 winner and 2014 champion outdated filly Shut Hatches. Scylla is a full sister to G2 winner Tacitus and G3 winner Battendown within the Traditional. Her dam is the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner and a full sister to the dam (Lockdown) of the older two-time champion filth filly Idiomatic.
“That is what Scylla did for us,” Mott stated. “She comes from a line of mares that have been champions for us, so it’s actually nice to be part of that and keep it up the custom.”
