Del Mar Race Track
The female horses will race on Saturday on the Del Mar dirt track. Founding member of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, actor Bing Crosby built the track with other actors who shared his passion for the sport. The track holds several racing events in a year, including the grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes, in honour of the late actor.
Breeders’ Cup Distaff Regulations
The race is exclusively for fillies and mares, and is a Weight For Age race. The horses will be given weights to even out the contest, these will be based on weight, age, race distance and the time in the month that the race is held in. The age limit is three years and older, though most mares retire by the ages of 5 or 6, for breeding or health purposes.
The Distaff has 14 runners, with up to eight automatic berths, all in the US, where race horses can qualify by participating in previous graded races.
Longines Distaff Entries
As Time Goes By
As Time Goes By showed an excellent run of form in her four opening races at Santa Anita, where she won three of her races and came runner up in the fourth. Earlier this year, she placed fourth in the Clement L. Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar; she will want to improve on her result this time around. Her trainer, Bob Baffert is the second highest winner of Breeders Cup with 17, but the Distaff still eludes his trophy cabinet.
The filly has an impressive four wins from ten starts, including three second places and one third place. So far she has earned over $450,000 in her two season career.
Blue Stripe
The Argentinian bred filly has a strong track record in her native Argentina. She won her first grade 1 race at the Hipodromo Argentino de Palermo, which gave her a place at this year's Longines Distaff. Though she does not have an extensive history in racing at the top tier, she is sure to make a good performance in her run of form. Blue Stripe has won four out of her six starts with two third places; she has earned over $40,000.
Clairiere
In September, filly Clairiere won her first grade 1 race at the Cotillion Stakes. She has an impressive track record, almost exclusively racing at graded races. Conditioned by famed horse trainer Steven Asmussen, who has an excellent track record with male and female horses. He coached the legendary Rachel Alexandra, who won the 2009 Preakness Stakes, the first filly to do so in 85 years.
Clairiere has had nine starts, of which she won three, came second place three times and came third place twice. She has earned over $1.1 million, and is a strong contender for the distaff with her experience and success in the top tiers.
Dunbar Road
Dunbar Road won her career debut at Gulfstream Park in 2019, with trainer Chad Brown. Directly after, she started racing at graded events, where she has won at the grade 1 Alabama Stakes and won plenty of grade 2 events too. Chad Brown, her trainer, has won the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer for four years in a row, from 2016 to 2019 and has experience training world class mares in Stacelita and Lady Eli.
Dunbar Road will look to improve on her six wins from fifteen starts, including two second places and three third. She has amassed over $1.3 million in her racing career.
Horologist
Horologist won in her career debut at Monmouth Park in 2018. In her next race at Parx Racing track, she had problems with the grass, and switched back to her preferred dirt tracks. Since then she has steadily been more involved in graded races, and has won at Monmouth Park and Belmont Park. She is trained by William Mott, who has received the Eclipse Award for Outstanding trainer in 1995 and 1996. In her 26 starts, the mare has won nine races, and has come in second and third place four times each. She has earned $940,000 in her career.
Letruska
This Kentucky bred mare was trained and made her breakthrough in Mexico. In 2018, at the Hipodromo De Las America, she made her career debut which she won, and went on to win 6 more races in a row at the track. She has gone on to win in many graded competitions in Mexico and the US, and this year Mexican trainer Gutierrez tried to enter her in the “Win and You’re In” event in the Saratoga’s Ballerina Stakes. Letruska has bounced back and won four grade 1 races in this year alone. She has won seventeen races from twenty two starts, with one second place and one third place, earning her over $2.2 million.
Malathaat
Malathaat is a fan favourite, out of her seven starts she has won six times and placed second once. This fantastic statistic is made better by the fact that five of those starts were graded, of which four were grade 1. She is physically as perfect as you can get, said general long-time manager, Rick Nicols. The filly is conditioned by trainer Todd Pletcher, who has plenty of experience with Breeders’ Cup Winners. Malathaat has made over $1.5 million in her career, and has the potential to become one of the world’s greatest racehorses.
Marche Lorraine
Marche Lorraine will be the first Japanese filly to compete in the Breeders’ Distaff. In her three season career, she has raced in many non-graded events in Japan, including two wins at both OI and Kokura. She has eight wins, two second place and two third place finishes in her twenty starts, and has winnings of over $1.8 million.
Private Mission
As well as coaching As Time Goes By, Bob Baffert is also the trainer to Private Mission. This filly started her career in Santa Anita Park, where she won on her debut. She has won three from three starts this year, including the Zenyatta Stakes in October, where she won a place at the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. From a total of five starts, the filly has won four, including two wins in graded races. She has made over $250,000 in her racing career.
Royal Flag
Royal Flag is a filly that has only finished in the top three in her thoroughbred racing career. She, like Dunbar Road, is trained by Chad Brown, and won her place at the Longines Distaff with a brilliant performance in the grade 2 Beldame Stakes in Belmont Park. Not at all rooted to only showing up on one track, she won her six races at five different venues in Aqueduct, Gulfstream Park, Churchill Downs, Saratoga and Belmont Park. From her twelve starts, she has six wins, and three second and third places each. Seven of her races have been in grades 1, 2 or 3; and she has earned a total of $573,000 from her performances.
Shedaresthedevil
Contrary to her name, Shedaresthedevil has been described by co-owner Staton Flurry as one of the sweetest, kindest spirited horses when she is off the racetrack. Sired by Daredevil, this filly put herself amongst the best when she won the Longines Kentucky Oaks in Churchill Downs in 2020. This was the same track on which she had her career debut, which she also won, but it was not a graded contest. Since her victory, in 2021 Shedaresthedevil has gone from strength to strength, winning four out of her five races so far. She has only come lower than third place once in her career, and with the help of 2020 Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer, Brad Cox, she is a strong contender for the Longines Distaff. She has won nine from her sixteen starts, with second and third places two and four times respectively. Her career earnings stand at $2.3 million for her three year career.
Breeder’s Cup Classic Betting Guide
Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf Race Guide