Blue Prize continues march to Distaff in Locust Grove

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Although the Iroquois and Pocahontas stakes are the only two Win and You’re In Breeders’ Cup qualifying stakes on Saturday at Churchill Downs, another stakes there – the Grade 3, $100,000 Locust Grove – still could showcase a Breeders’ Cup starter.

Its 2-1 morning-line favorite, Blue Prize, is already a Breeders’ Cup qualifier, having won the June 16 Fleur de Lis, which provides an entry in the Distaff. And since that victory, trainer Ignacio Correas has plotted out a two-race prep schedule to land her in the Distaff, with the Grade 1 Spinster at Keeneland on Oct. 7 being her final Breeders’ Cup tune-up.

Now, it is just up to the filly to run herself into the Distaff, and for her owner, Merriebelle Stable, to feel sufficiently encouraged to make her Breeders’ Cup eligible at a cost of $100,000 since Blue Prize was not an original nominee when she began her career as a young filly in South America.

If Blue Prize is able to prevail in the Locust Grove, some of that nomination fee would be defrayed. To do so, she must outrun eight rivals, led by Champagne Problems, winner of the Grade 3 Groupie Doll at Ellis Park on Aug. 12, and Pinch Hit, who ran third in the Groupie Doll when stalking the pace but who may have the speed to lead in the Locust Grove.

Blue Prize, a 5-year-old Pure Prize mare, has the racetrack in her favor, having run first or second in all four starts over the Churchill Downs main track. Besides her victory in the Fleur de Lis, she won the Grade 2 Falls City by 8 1/2 lengths last fall beneath the Twin Spires.

“We know she loves Churchill, and we don’t have to ship that much to run there,” Correas said, referring to the one-hour van ride from his Keeneland base. “The distance is a little shorter than we’d prefer, but you can’t have everything.”

That distance, 1 1/16 miles, is one-sixteenth shorter than her optimal distance of 1 1/8 miles, at which Blue Prize is 3 for 7 in the U.S. By comparison, she has two seconds and a seventh in three U.S. races at 1 1/16 miles.

Julien Leparoux rides, replacing regular jockey Jose Ortiz, who is riding in Canada on Saturday.

Trainer Ian Wilkes at this point is not eyeing the Breeders’ Cup Distaff for Champagne Problems, though she, like Blue Prize, could reappear in the Spinster.

A second-level allowance filly when beginning 2018, Champagne Problems has gone 3 for 5 this year, capped by the finest effort of her 18-race career when she rolled to a 3 1/4-length victory in the Groupie Doll.

An off-the-pace runner drawn in post 2, she must overcome a lack of pace that could aid the tactical Pinch Hit.

◗ One race before the Locust Grove, female sprinters kick off the Churchill stakes action in the $100,000 Open Mind (race 8), the first race in an all-stakes pick four. A six-furlong dash on the main track, it rematches the top three finishers from the Roxelana Stakes from the spring meet at Churchill – Astrollinthepark, Miss Kentucky, and Vertical Oak, the 7-5 favorite.

Astrollinthepark and Vertical Oak have raced since the Roxelana, with Astrollinthepark running a distant second to Golden Mischief in the West Virginia Secretary of State at Mountaineer on Aug. 4 and Vertical Oak running second in the Grade 2 Honorable Miss at Saratoga on July 25.

BARBARA D. LIVINGSTON Blue Prize wins the Fleur de Lis to qualify for the BC Distaff.