Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (Grade 1)
JAVIER Castellano waited in LAX to board his redeye flight back to JFK late Saturday night and still couldn’t get over the effort of Belvoir Bay almost 11 hours earlier.
“She hadn’t run since June, huge effort,” Castellano said of the English-bred Equiano mare who defeated stablemate Om by a length and a quarter in the five-furlong contest. “The trainer does a great job. I was lucky to be a part of it.”
Castellano rode the mare for the first time for Peter Miller, who won the Turf Sprint for the third straight year. He also won in 2017 and 2018 with Stormy Liberal, who finished eighth this year.
Belvoir Bay, who sold for $1.5 million at Tuesday’s Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November sale, hadn’t run since finishing fourth in the Grade 1 Jaipur Invitational on June 8th at Belmont Park. She favoured the Santa Anita course, however, and improved to seven-for-10 with her 12th career victory.
‘Special’ Covfefe makes her name
Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (Grade 1)
Not a fan of Donald Trump, Roth, the “J” that makes up LNJ Foxwoods with her father Larry and mother Nancy submitted the name request Covfefe not long after one of the US president’s blunders on social media in May 2017.
The Jockey Club approved the name, Roth attached it to a daughter of Into Mischief her family bought as a yearling for $250,000 a few months later and not quite two years later there they were shouting her name and possibly celebrating a divisional championship after Covfefe’s victory in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.
“It’s been personally fun for me,” Jaime Roth said after Covfefe won by three-quarters of a length under Joel Rosario over fellow three-year-old filly Bellafina. “It just means the world to share a really special horse with fans.”