Breeders’ Cup weekend kicks off with $2M Distaff

Del Mar hosting season-ending event for first time.

Breeders’ Cup weekend kicks off with four stakes today, topped by the $2 million Distaff, as Del Mar hosts the season-ending championships for the first time.

It’s i s the warmup for Saturday when the seaside resort track presents nine more, culminating with the $6 million Classic where defending winner Arrogate tops a quartet from Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert aiming to derail Gun Runner, the best from back East.

There are plenty of standout storylines today, especially in the Distaff where Stellar Wind, the 5-2 favorite, takes a third and final crack at the race while John Sadler, her trainer, looks to end his 0-for-39 Breeders’ Cup drought.

Both horse and conditioner could use a better turn in their racing fortunes.

Stellar Wind, a 5-year-old mare heading off to retirement after this race, suffered a hard-luck loss by only a neck after an extremely wide trip in her first Distaff try in 2015. Last year was a disaster from the start when she broke poorly from the gate. She regrouped to be fourth to Beholder, a mare she had beaten in consecutive stakes leading to the Breeders’ Cup.

This season has gone perfectly for Stellar Wind. She is 3 for 3, all Grade 1 victories. And she has a possible home-field advantage, having won all three races at Del Mar.

“It’s the icing on the cake if she does it, and hopefully we send her home a winner,” said Sadler.

The trainer, widely considered one of the best to have never won a Breeders’ Cup, wouldn’t mind taking home a trophy for his display case. Sadler has picked up a trio of seconds and seven thirdplace finishes in the Cup.

Stellar Wind will again face stiff competition.

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert sends out Abel Tasman (4-1), a talented 3-yearold who captured the Kentucky Oaks in May.

Fellow Hall of Famer Bill Mott also has a promising 3-year-old in Elate (the 3-1 second choice) who stepped up to convincingly to beat her elders by 8¼ lengths in the Beldame Invitational at Belmont Park.

In the other $1 million Breeders’ Cup stakes today:

■ Rushing Fall, the winner of both starts, is the 7-2 favorite in the Juvenile Fillies Turf. Happily, a multiple stakes winner in Europe for master Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien, is the main competition.

■ Baffert has two solid shots in the Dirt Mile with Mor Spirit (3-1) and Cupid (8-1). Sadler is in here with Accelerate (7-2) who ran third in the race last year.

■ Six of the 14 runners in the Juvenile Turf hail from Europe, including Irish-bred Masar, the 9-2 choice.