BC Distaff – Grade I
1 1/8 Mile Dirt Stake Purse $2,000.000 3 Year Olds And Up Fillies and Mares.
The grade one BC Distaff is the premier showcase for fillies and mares at HRP. The race is run at 1 1/8 miles on dirt at DMR for a purse of $2,000.000. I say it’s a showcase for fillies and mares, but I should be candid and say it is a race for fillies. You see, in its 21 running’s, it has never been won by a mare, Never has a horse older than four-years-old won the BC Distaff: 13 of the 21 races have been won by three-year-olds and the others have been won by four-year-olds. It is a race of youth, and it remains to be seen if that can be changed this year. There is at least one older mare which looks like she’s up to the challenge. That is TwinTowersRacing’s Starting Over which is six years old and definitely with a winning chance. But scroll through the field and, indeed, it is mostly three-and-four-year-olds that offer all the real threat.
The race has a storied history, seeing great horses and great trainers some given to history, some looking to add to their resume. Jerry Garcia Racing sent out the first winner in three-year-old Poisonessmonster in 2003 and returned in 2007 with four-year-old Blondeinabodystockin. There were the famed: Australia Wide’s famed Darling Harbour in 2004, Serenity Stables’ Halfbaked in 2006, Ken Allan with super mare Mrs Bombastic and more recently Smokey Stover’s Z Command. Many trainers entered in this race are looking for repeat wins. Should Starting Over break the mare jinx, she will give TwinTowersRacing their third victory in this race. Smokey Stover is also looking for number three, and Mb Stables have a trio in here looking for his second score.
As the race shapes up, I really like Starting Over’s chances for the win along with Mb Stable’s pair Untidy and his three-year-old Wasted Away. Smokey Stover’s Divine Moonlight is a solid chance, and I like Fractious’ Ignore Tucker as the dark horse longshot. Have at it, lasses.
1 American Sky
Owner: Riggins Racing
Since being purchased from her breeder back at the end of 2022 for $20.000, American Sky has been a successful mare in graded races across the country, placing in seven graded races, including a few grade ones and adding to her total earnings of $1,194.960. She is a reliable stalker and two races ack registered a 100 SRF running third in the grade one Personal Ensign at SAR, this after winning the grade three Pitcher Stakes at MTH. After running a flat fifth in the grade two Zenyatta Stakes, Iolaus Racing decided to sell her to Riggins Racing for $200.000 who promptly took advantage of her 12th position on the points and entered her here. She will have to reach deep, though, to challenge this level of competition.
2 Midnight Rumble
Owner: Riggins Racing
Riggings Racing sends this lightly raced three-year-old homebred filly here off a sharp victory in the grade two Zenyatta Stakes at SA with a scorching come from behind SRF 100. Just the sort of prep you want coming into November. She has had a promising start to her career with four wins from twelve, three of them stakes and two graded, but this most recent win is the corker, setting her up for a big run with a nice post and a top experienced jockey. The only thing that might stop her is her lack of seasoning.
3 Purple Charger
Owner: Alydar Stables
Purple Charger, another three-year-old challenger, was born running. She won her first two starts which included The Astoria at EL which prompted Fractious to pay $550.000 for the two-year-old to breeder Our Athletes. Well, that investment paid off with three graded stakes wins, including the grade one Alcibiades and the grade one Ashland both at KEE, a second in the BC Juvenile Fillies and a bank account of $1,740.000. After a couple of bad distance performances, Fractious decided to let her go and sold her on the 28th last to Alydar Stables for $600.000. Now it is those two races that make her suspect here. After winning The Ashland in fine fashion and coming within a length of the win in both the KY Oaks and The Oaks, she just showed uncharacteristic form in losing two races that she needed to perform well in to be fancied here.
4 Shining At Knight
Owner: Our Athletes
Our Athletes homebred four-year-old has had to work hard to get here. No big wins. Not a lot of flash, but a bank account approaching $1,000.000, she has won 5 of 20 and only occasionally pops up in a grade one. She has been showing some significant improvement, though, enough to get 16th in points and the 4 post in the Distaff. Four races back, she finished second in the grade one Phipps Stakes at SAR and followed that up with a win in the grade two DEL Handicap. Things were looking rosy until the next two races. Now, one was an unfortunate attempt at a very long turf race which went tragically, but her most recent was not what she wanted to bring into the Distaff: she ran a mysterious 10th as the favourite in the grade one Spinster at KEE. If she runs that back here, all hope is lost.
5 Starting Over
Owner: TwinTowersRacing
And here she is: La Grande Dame…. Ten stakes wins, half of them grade one, $3,261.360 in earnings. At the start, you would never have suspected what was to come. After a coule of losing efforts at PRX, she changed hands twice and wound up in the hands of TwinTowersRacing. TTR is a stable that sticks with their charges, notorious for working with them and getting the most from them, and so it was that they brought her along to finally get a win out of her in her seventh race at BTP of all places. But, from there it was only five races later that she had a string of three straight stakes wins two of which were graded. The rest was history, stakes races fell, a narrow neck defeat third in last year’s BC Distaff and still only six. And, her current form, ready for this race, in her last four races, she has posted SRF 101 twice. In her last out, she missed the grade one Spinster by a length and won the grade one Personal Ensign the race before.
6 Beach Towel
Owner: Winning Link Stables
Only three-years-old and one of only two with only three wins, she managed to rack up enough points in the three-year-old races to be 11 in points for the Distaff, and here she is. And she has shown a lot of promise leading up to the race with a deep closing performance in the grade one Cotillion Stakes at PRX that saw her third beaten only three-quarter lengths. She has only one significant win to her resume, the grade two GP Oaks, which leaves outside the lead pack for this race and a bit of a long shot. She will need to find some significant improvement and help from the added distance to be a factor here.
7 Ignore Tucker
Owner: Fractious
After that spectacular performance in the grade one Personal Ensign, I’m sure that Fractious was hoping for a better showing from Ignore Tucker in the grade one Spinster, but she just did one of those start too late in the stretch runs. I think half the time you can throw those performances out, and if this is one of those times, then we have a real racehorse here. She’s always been a nice horse but has never quite lived up to the $1,200.000 price that Fractious paid breeder La Canada Racehorses back after she reeled off three spectacular wins as a two-year-old. Now, she’s been showing growing promise since April including two SRF 100’s in her last four races. Throw out that Spinster stubbed toe and she’s the dark horse chance here.
8 Decimas Queen
Owner: Maxmillion Farm
Winner of four of only ten starts, this lightly raced filly has already earned $1,239.200, winning the grade two SA Oaks, the grade one Hirsch Stakes at DMR and second in the KY Oaks among other notable performances. As a three-year-old, it may be a little too soon to be reaching for the brass ring of the BC Distaff, but the future certainly looks bright for this clever $20.000 prerace purchase. Her last route run rang the bell, though, as she won the Hirsch in classic fashion and sharp time, but three races back. Those two sprint races after offered nothing but exercise and question marks, so we’ll have to see how it goes for her.
9 Present Tense
Owner: Mb Stables
Mb Stables finds their trio pretty far away from the Sun as Present Tense has the closest post at 9, but a fair run to the Club House Turn may mitigate that a bit. It’s amazing to look at these three, representing over $6,000.000 of earning between them, and think that Present Tense may be the third string horse, and she comes in here off a grade two win in the Beldame at AQU with a SRF 100.
And her run up to this race includes four wins and two seconds all in graded races! This filly was winning stakes races two races after starting her career, and I mean that plural, She won her second stakes race, a $200.000 race in her fourth start. It has been like that ever on, She hasn’t won a lot of grade ones, but she has won her fair share of stakes and a lot of races, enough to amass $2,365.51 of earnings. In fact, it could be her lack of grade one wins that holds her back from the win here, but not the place.
10 Divine Moonlight
Owner: Smokey Stover
The most lightly raced filly in the race, Divine Moonlight. And I’m afraid that will work against her. Don’t get me wrong, she’s been brilliant. She’s won five of nine. She won three straight culminating with a victory in the grade one Cotillion Stakes in excellent time and then steppingstone to this race a step up against older to finish second in the grade one Spinster. All of it very promising, but I just wonder about the experience. Those three wins up to the Spinster all had soft SRF’s, although she got a 99 SRF in the Spinster. Another thing I wonder about is that run in the Ashland, was that the rain, because it’s likely to rain Saturday according that blondie on TV. I know she won her debut in rain, but that was a soft field, and she is so good she probably could have won in a tornado. Anyway, she is a brilliant buy from Riggings Racing for $600.000 back when she was two and was tearing up the tracks, almost as sharp as when Riggins bought her for $35.000.
11 Wasted Away
Owner: Mb Stables
Mb Stables’ version of the lightly raced three-year-old filly, Wasted Away is a spectacular example of early success by marvelous machines. She entered the fifth race of her life, the grade one Ashland at KEE with a record of two wins and a second from four starts and finished second beaten a neck. For the rest of her career to now, every race has been a grade one, five races, three wins and two seconds, the KY Oaks, The CCA Oaks, The Alabama. She finished her run to the BC Distaff with a second in the Cotillion Stakes. That leaves a filly with a filly a little short on experience, but a powerhouse record of first or second in nine of ten starts, most against the best fillies of her age in the world. And the “of her age” may be the stickler here. She has never mat an older horse in her life, so now is the time she has to prove she can. Others her age have done it, and I’m confident she can. She’s a real threat here.
12 Untidy
Owner: Mb Stables
What looks the best of the Mb Stables entries, Untidy announced her intentions for the BC Distaff with a handy win in the grade one Spinster registering an impressive SRF 101 in the process. As only a four-year-old, she seems to be coming into her own, in spite of the fact that she has already won seven stakes races and earned $2,214.000. It’s just that she has developed in kind of levels, working her way up the ladder to these dizzying heights. She had a remarkable start to life. After being purchased at auction from her breeder for $32.010, Mb Stables placed her in a big ticket maiden at DMR which she won at 24-1, so naturally, he brought her back against the boys in the $150.000 Jerome at AQU which she hung on to win at 29-1. That pretty much covered the purchase price. From there on, it has been mostly good runs with occasional flops and occasional big wins as she develops level by level until we have before us now a definite chance for the win in the BC Distaff.
13 Lab Virus
Owner: Saratoga Stud
Lab Virus is here because she gathered 13 points racing against three-year-olds. She started her career with little interest in this race as her breeder raced her in maiden and allowance races until she started a string of what would be three wins. At two wins, she was placed in a $32.000 claiming race which she won and from which she was claimed by Saratoga Stud. Saratoga had other ideas, and the rest of her lifetime races have been graded stakes races. Two races after being claimed, she won the grade three Gazelle at AQU and placed in two others after. Problem today is her last two performances have been unfortunate, and she is going to have to shake those off and learn very quickly how to take on older grade one mares.
14 Hobo Blues
Owner: Alydar Stables
Hobo Blues was 8 in points thanks to some good placings against her fellow three-year-olds. She was picked up by Alydar Stables after an impressive win first time around two turns at DED, and Alydar immediately won The $250.000 Martha Washington at OP. Three races later she won the grade two Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at PIM. Four grade ones followed with some two deep losses and two placings that assured her her points. She comes into the race with a disappointing showing in the Cotillion Stakes and the same problem that Hobo Blues has in that she will have to shake that race off and learn very quickly how to take on older grade one mares.
Categories: BC 2024, Grade I, STAKES ARTICLES, THE BREEDERS CUP
