Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Sam-Son Farm has its ticket back to the Breeders’ Cup
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – SamSon Farm’s last starter in a Breeders’ Cup race was Grand Adventure, who finished 10th in the 2011 running of the BC Turf Sprint at Churchill Downs, but its red and gold silks could make an appearance at Santa Anita this year following El Tormenta’s win in Saturday’s Grade 1 Woodbine Mile.
El Tormenta earned a 101 Beyer Speed Figure and secured a fees-paid berth in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile. Following the race, trainer Gail Cox and Michael Balaz, part of the Sam-Son ownership team, both said they would see how El Tormenta came out of the Woodbine Mile before making a final decision on the Breeders’ Cup.
“That will be a decision that the higher-ups will have to make and everyone will have to get together, but I don’t see why not after running like that,” Balaz said.
Cox added that she did not think the travel to California would be an issue for El Tormenta.
“We’ll get him back to the barn and see how he is and everybody will talk about it,” she said. “He’s a very easy horse to deal with so he’d travel well.”
If El Tormenta did make his way to the Breeders’ Cup, it would set up a rematch with Woodbine Mile runner-up Got Stormy. Trainer Mark Casse said following the Woodbine Mile that he was pleased with Got Stormy’s effort.
“I was proud of her,” he said. “I was a little worried that they weren’t going to carry her far enough and that she’d make the lead. But the winner ran very well, showed a lot of guts down inside. I was proud of our filly. I’ve lost no respect for her and I feel extremely confident that we’ll be right there in the Breeders’ Cup.”
El Tormenta sprung a 44-1 upset in the Woodbine Mile, the same odds as Quiet Resolve when he won what was then named the Atto Mile for SamSon Farm in 1999. The Woodbine Mile was El Tormenta’s first route race of the year after three consecutive troubled trips in sprints. Cox said the connections felt after each start this year that El Tormenta could stretch out, even after being considered a sprinter last season.
“Last year, he had a totally different style of running,” she said. “This year he’s more relaxed. Every time he’s run we’ve thought he could go a bit farther. The mile didn’t concern me. I was happy with the extra distance.”
Starship Jubilee may try Taylor
Starship Jubilee romped in the Grade 2 Canadian Stakes for the second consecutive year on Saturday afternoon at Woodbine, and trainer Kevin Attard said the 6-year-old mare would be nominated to the Grade 1, $600,000 E.P. Taylor Stakes, which will be run over 1 1/4 miles on turf at Woodbine on Oct. 12.
However, Attard noted that the E.P. Taylor distance isn’t Starship Jubilee’s best. Starship Jubilee finished fourth in last year’s edition of the E.P. Taylor after setting the pace, and was second in the Grade 2 Dance Smartly Stakes over 1 1/4 miles earlier this year.
“A mile and a quarter is a tad far for her,” he said. “I think a mile and an eighth hits her squarely between the eyes. When we do run her a mile and a quarter, I think we have to ride her a little differently.”
Complicating the decision further is an additional bonus that could be on the line for Starship Jubilee in the E.P. Taylor. Starship Jubilee is now the leader in Woodbine’s Ladies of the Lawn series, a four-race graded stakes turf series that includes the Grade 2 Nassau, the Grade 2 Dance Smartly, and the Grade 2 Canadian Stakes. The series concludes with the E.P. Taylor, and offers $75,000 in bonuses to the top three finishers in the points standings. Starship Jubilee is the only horse to have run in all three legs of the series, and recorded runnerup finishes in the Nassau and Dance Smartly before her victory in Saturday’s Canadian Stakes.
“With the E.P. Taylor being in your own backyard, it’s always very tempting,” Attard said. “We’ll obviously nominate for it and hopefully she comes out of the race in good order. We’ll talk it over with the owners and decide from there.”