Mutasaabeq a tiger on turf

Trainer Todd Pletcher won the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf with Pluck, and on Sunday at Keeneland came up with a leading North American hope for the race’s 2020 renewal when Mutasaabeq scored an eye-catching win the Grade 2 Bourbon Stakes.

The Bourbon is a Breeders’ Cup Challenge race and Mutasaabeq has a fees-paid entry into the Juvenile Turf, to be run next month over the same course he mastered this past Sunday. Mutasaabeq began working on turf after a distant third-place finish in the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes on dirt, and Pletcher liked what he saw enough to try the Bourbon. Mutasaabeq and jockey Luis Saez did get an ideal pace setup, as the leaders ripped off fast early fractions, but Mutasaabeq, in order to get a clean run, raced very wide into the homestretch, still winning comfortably.

At Belmont on Saturday, Fire At Will led from start to finish in the Pilgrim Stakes to earn a spot in the Juvenile Turf field, but runner-up Public Sector, the odds-on favorite, probably performed as well as the winner. Fire At Will was permitted to dictate a glacial pace, while Public Sector finished with plenty of run with little chance to catch the perfect-trip winner. Mike Maker trains Fire At Will, while Chad Brown, who won the 2019 BC Juvenile Turf with Structor, trains Public Sector.

Easily the Juvenile Turf trainer with the most success is Aidan O’Brien, who has landed the top prize four times in the race’s 13-year history. One of O’Brien’s winners was Hit It a Bomb in 2015, during the only previous Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland. O’Brien seems certain to have at least one runner this year, but his stable was thrown into some disarray last weekend when the feed O’Brien and other horsemen in Ireland, England, and France used was found to be contaminated with a banned substance. O’Brien scratched his runners from the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe as well as St. Mark’s Basilica, a possible BC Juvenile Turf runner who was likely to be favored in the Grade 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere, another Breeders’ Cup Challenge race.

In St. Mark’s Basilica’s absence, Sealiway scored an easy win in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere, going well on the heavy, holding ground that flummoxed many runners Sunday at Longchamp. His connections said afterward they intended to send Sealiway to Keeneland for the Juvenile Turf.

The Grade 1 Dewhurst, a key race in the division, is Saturday at Newmarket. Among the expected runners there is Cadillac, who won a Breeders’ Cup Challenge race, the Juvenile Stakes at Leopardstown, and is considered a likely runner at Keeneland.