Del Mar Race Track
This year, it was announced that the Del Mar race track would host the Breeders’ Cup Championship. The track features both dirt and turf tracks, the turf being made of Bermuda grass. The track has the second largest capacity in the US with 44,000 seats. It was founded by actor and Thoroughbred Club member Bing Crosby, as well as a number of actors including Oliver Hardy from “Laurel and Hardy”.
Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf Regulations
The race is a Weight For Age thoroughbred horse race for horses aged three and up. Weight For Age is the system used to ensure that all the horses can race without one having a physical advantage over the other. The horses are given different weights depending on age, race distance, weight and the time of the month.
Maker’s Mark Filly and Turf Entries
Acanella
This is Acanella’s debut season and she already has two wins. She started her career in Leopardstown with a classy win and with her second win at the Snow Fairy Stakes in August, she won her place in the Maker’s Mark Filly and Turf. The filly has those two wins from her seven starts, and also has a second place, altogether she has earned over $45,00.
Audarya
The French bred winner of last year's Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, Audarya returns to try to win a consecutive title. 2020 was her best year so far, she also won in the Sky Sports Racing Sky 415 Handicap Stakes and Darley Prix Jean Romanet. Though this year has started a bit slower for the defending champion, she still looks to be in good shape for the event. From her 17 starts, she has five wins, six second places and one third place, earning her $1.5 million.
Dogtag
Dogtag has been very consistent this year, she has yet to win but has never fallen below third place. She is trained by Richard Mandella, who trained nine Breeders’ Cup Winners, including four who won on the same day. Starting her career in 2018, Dogtag has won four times out of 15 starts with five second places and three third places, earning her $424,000.
Going To Vegas
Going to Vegas had a bit of a march for the first year and a half of her career. Debuting in 2019, she achieved her first win after seven races, in a non-Graded race at Santa Anita Park. She was bought for half her value, at $50,000 by trainer Richard Baltas, on behalf of his clients. Under the training of Baltas, the filly started winning and climbing into the Graded races, where she won twice at Santa Anita, including the Rodeo Drive Stakes, and once at Del Mar, the track that she will come back to for the Maker’s Mark Filly and Mare Turf.
From twenty two starts, the four year old filly has won seven races, came second eight times and came third twice, winning her $630,000.
Love
Irish filly Love won a Silver Flash Stand and Moyglare Stud Stakes in her first year. In her following year she went undefeated in three grade 1 races. This year she has won the Prince of Wales Stake and looks in strong form for the Breeders’ Cup. She has seven wins, two second places and three third from fourteen starts, earning $1.8 million.
Loves Only You
This will be the first visit to the US for the Japanese thoroughbred, Loves Only You. Starting her career in 2018, she won four straight races, including one graded race, and her streak ended at the Elizabeth II Cup, where she placed third. This year she returned to the Elizabeth II Cup, where she placed first and qualified for the Breeders’ Cup. Starting fourteen times, she has six wins, two second place and three third places, earning $5.5 million.
My Sister Nat
The Irish-British filly can put her name in the history books with a win here at the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf. Her half-sister Sister Charlie also won here in 2018, and with a win, her mother, Starlet’s Sister, would become the seventh broodmare to have two of her offspring winning Breeders’ Cups. My Sister Nat was brought up in France, where she made her debut in 2018 in Longchamps, and won her subsequent race at the same venue. At the Prix Bertrand de Tarragon she won her first Graded race in the Longchamps again. She had a quiet 2019 season, but picked up two wins in 2020 and this year at the Fasig-Tipton Waya Stakes in Belmont Park, which won her place to the Breeders’ Cup event. In twenty starts, she has won four and placed second seven times with five third places and earned a total of $825,000.
Ocean Road
Three year old Irish filly debuted in Nottingham, where she came in at a close second. She won her following race at Lingfield in the EBF Novice Fillies Stake. This year she came third at Newmarket and Lingfield, to secure her position at this year's Breeders’ Cup. Out of a career five starts, she has won once, placed second once and came third twice, earning $32,000.
Pocket Square
Pocket Square is a British bred filly who started her career in 2019. Within three races she already picked up two wins, with one being a Graded race at the Prix des Reservoirs. Due to the pandemic, she only had one race in 2020, where she finished 6th, but with trainer Chad Brown, she picked up where she left off from her debut season, and has picked up three wins from her five starts this year. The filly has had a total of nine starts, with five wins and one third place, racking up $294,000 in race earnings.
Queen Supreme
The Irish filly started her career with a debut win at the Interbet Maiden plate in Turffontein. Following two more wins at the same venue, she entered the Graded races and won her first at Turffontein again. She won the 2021 Cartier Paddock Stakes at Kenilworth in her first Grade 1 victory, and won her place in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf. With British trainer Andrew Balding she has seven wins from her fifteen starts, as well as two finishes in second and third. She has won over $105,000 in her career.
Rougir
Translated from the French for “to blush”, Rougir won the “Win and You’re In” Grade 1 race in Prix de l’Opera Longines. The Cedric Rossi trained filly won in the final furlong of the ten furlong event defeating British contestant Grand Glory by a nose. She made her debut in Chantilly where she won her first race, and has struggled with races where she did not place high, but has come round to win a place in the Breeders’ Cup. From a total of thirteen starts, Rougir has won four races and placed second once, with three third places. She has earned over $530,000 from her racing performances.
War Like Goddess
This young filly, trained by William Mott, won her first career race in Churchill Downs. In an astounding turn of events, she went on to win five of her following starts, putting her at six wins in seven starts. In the 2021 Flower Bowl Stakes in Saratoga, she won her place in the Breeders’ Cup event, and earning over $710,000, she has proved herself an up and coming filly for the Breeders' Cup.
Breeders’ Cup Distaff Betting Preview
A Preview to the Breeders’ Cup Mile Race