OLDSMAR, FL. – If Skippylongstocking wins the $1-million Big Ass Fans Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Saturday, trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr., may look back on his Grade III Michelob Ultra Challenger Stakes victory on March 9 at Tampa Bay Downs as his launching pad to glory.
“I think it was a very important race for him, if not his most important of the year,” Joseph said this morning from Del Mar in southern California, where he is preparing four horses for the 41st annual Breeders’ Cup showcase being held Friday and Saturday. “Coming off the Pegasus World Cup (on Jan. 27 at Gulfstream Park, when he became overheated early in the race and was pulled up), I think he needed a confidence booster and we needed a confidence booster.”
Skippylongstocking had won the 2023 Michelob Ultra Challenger as a 4-year-old, so Joseph returned him to the Oldsmar oval to start over. Under jockey Tyler Gaffalione, Skippylongstocking responded with a thoroughly professional victory in the mile-and-a-sixteenth race that kept alive Joseph’s plans to race him at the highest level.
“Whatever he did at Tampa was going to set the tone for what he did the rest of the year,” said Joseph, who is expected to keep a 12-horse string at Tampa Bay Downs when the 2024-2025 meet begins Nov. 20. “After the Challenger, we sent him to Arkansas for the (Grade II) Oaklawn Handicap (on April 20), and when he won there we had our confidence back.”
So do handicappers, who have made Skippylongstocking the 4-1 second choice for the Big Ass Fans Dirt Mile. The 7-2 favorite is 3-year-old Domestic Product, who captured the Grade III Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby here on March 9 and has added victories in the Grade III Dwyer Stakes on July 6 at Belmont at The Big A and in the Grade I H. Allen Jerkens Memorial on Aug. 24 at Saratoga.
Domestic Product, who is owned by Klaravich Stables and trained by Chad Brown, will be ridden by Flavien Prat.
Tampa Bay Downs will open the doors at 11 a.m. on Friday and Saturday for simulcast action, with the first post time Friday at Del Mar at 2:35 p.m. Eastern Time and the first Breeders’ Cup race, which is the sixth on the card, at 5:45 ET.
Saturday’s Del Mar card will begin at 1:05 p.m. ET, with the first Breeders’ Cup race, the fourth of the day, at 3 p.m. ET. Friday’s five Breeders’ Cup races are all for 2-year-olds (juveniles), while Saturday’s slate of nine Breeders’ Cup races – which is likely to settle most of the sport’s divisional championships and the Horse of the Year – includes the $7-million Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic, the $5-million Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf and the $2-million Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff, featuring superstar 3-year-old filly Thorpedo Anna, the Longines Kentucky Oaks winner and a Horse of the Year candidate.
All of the action from Del Mar will be shown on the big screen in the Tampa Bay Downs infield.
Skippylongstocking will break from the outside No. 14 post position in the Big Ass Fans Dirt Mile, which is the 12th and final race on Saturday’s Del Mar card and the 14th Breeders’ Cup race over the two days of competition. Skippylongstocking, who is owned by Daniel Alonso, will be ridden by Irad Ortiz, Jr., who piloted him to his 2023 Michelob Ultra Challenger victory.
“Irad is the best in the country, and he’s ridden him before,” Joseph said. “The post is not ideal, but we’re not going to complain about it. I’m just hoping some of the others get sent early and we’re able to settle in fifth or sixth and get in a nice rhythm, and from there Irad and the horse will do the rest.”
Skippylongstocking, who won the Grade II Charles Town Classic on Aug. 23 for the second consecutive year, then finished second in the Grade II Woodward at Belmont At The Big A on Sept. 28, has earned more than $3-million in his career.
He finished third in last year’s Big Ass Fans Dirt Mile at Santa Anita, behind Horse of the Year Cody’s Wish and National Treasure. That was his best finish in Grade I company; he was also third in the 2022 Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets and this year’s Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs.
Joseph, who also finished third in last year’s PNC Bank Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint with Three Witches, is again represented in that 7-furlong race, this time by 5-year-old mare Soul of an Angel, who tuned up on Sept. 21 with a powerful come-from-behind victory in the Grade III Princess Rooney Invitational at Gulfstream. Joseph has trained Soul of an Angel since she was purchased privately by C2 Racing Stable and Agave Racing Stable before her May 4 victory in the Grade II Ruffian Stakes at Belmont At The Big A.
Soul of an Angel will be ridden in the PNC Bank Filly & Mare Sprint by Drayden Van Dyke. She has competed three times at Tampa Bay Downs, winning an allowance/optional claiming event here on Jan. 28 under her previous connections.
“She’s a good mare with a good mind, and her Princess Rooney effort speaks for itself,” Joseph said. “She’ll need to step up her game Saturday, but I think it’s within reach.”
Joseph has also entered two 4-year-old fillies in the Longines Distaff, Batucada and Honor D Lady. Batucada is owned by Joseph’s wife Morgan and Carrie Brogden and will be ridden by Ricardo Santana, Jr. Honor D Lady is owned by Final Furlong Farm and Madaket Stables and will be ridden by Gaffalione.
Thorpedo Anna and her jockey, Brian Hernandez, Jr., will be trying to make it tough for any of the Longines Turf or Longines Classic horses to erase her performance from the minds of Horse of the Year voters with a convincing Distaff score.
“Thorpedo Anna is a deserving favorite, but after that I think our horses can compete,” Joseph said. “You have to be in it to win it.”
Another Longines Distaff runner is 4-year-old Miss New York, trainer Jorge Delgado’s charge who will be ridden by Umberto Rispoli. Miss New York is 1-for-1 at Tampa Bay Downs, having won an allowance/optional claiming race here in 2023.
The 5-2 morning-line favorite for the mile-and-a-quarter Longines Classic, which is Saturday’s eighth race at Del Mar, is 3-year-old European star City of Troy, a son of 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify who is trained by Aidan P. O’Brien and will be ridden by Ryan Moore. City of Troy is 6-for-7, including a victory on Aug. 21 in the Group I Juddmonte International Stakes at York.
The 14-horse Longines Classic field includes 2023 Grade III Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby winner Tapit Trice, owned by Whisper Hill Farm and Gainesway Stable, trained by Todd Pletcher and to be ridden by Irad Ortiz, Jr. Granted, it’s the Classic, but Tapit Trice’s 30-1 morning-line odds seem high given his victories this year in the Grade III Monmouth Cup Stakes and the Grade II Woodward.
Tampa Bay Downs trainers H. Graham Motion and Jose Francisco D’Angelo are also set to compete at Del Mar. On Friday, Motion will send out Calumet Farm’s 2-year-old filly Correto in the John Deere Juvenile Fillies Turf. Jorge Ruiz is the jockey.
Motion has two Breeders’ Cup turf runners scheduled to compete Saturday, South African-bred 6-year-old gelding Isivunguvungu in the Prevagen Turf Sprint and another 4-year-old filly, Beach Bomb, in the Maker’s Mark Filly & Mare Turf. Manuel Franco rides Isivunguvungu and Antonio Fresu is on Beach Bomb.
D’Angelo is represented in the Prevagen Turf Sprint by 3-year-old Howard Wolowitz, winner of last month’s Grade I Aristocrat Franklin-Simpson Stakes at Kentucky Downs. Howard Wolowitz will be ridden by Prat. D’Angelo has also entered Bentornato, winner of the Grade II Gallant Bob Stakes on Sept. 21 at Parx Racing, in the Cygames Sprint, with Luis Saez set to ride.
