Adare Manor gallantly won the Clement L. Hirsch at Del Mar. (Ernie Belmonte/Past The Wire)
Breeders’ Cup Notes
ADARE MANOR is a filly who goes to great lengths. In nine career starts at Santa Anita Park, home of the 40th Breeders’ Cup World Championships, the daughter of Uncle Mo has won six — five of them stakes — by an average margin of almost 7 lengths, including lopsided triumphs by 12 and 13 lengths respectively. And as her trainer, Bob Baffert, is quick to note, “She’s an Amazon with a huge stride.”
But the 4-year-old will need all of her impressive talent for Saturday’s $2 Breeders’ Cup Distaff when she goes postward against a stellar field of fillies and mares in the mile and one-eighth race. “She’ll be running against a different type of filly on Saturday,” Baffert said. “She’s a big, fast filly and she has a great mind. But this will be a class test. Her last race was great, but this is a step up. To win this race, you need to have a really good horse and have real good luck. Winning these races,” he concluded, “is not easy.”
Baffert, who has won more money with his trainees at the Breeders’ Cup, is but two victories behind the all-time leader D. Wayne Lukas, with 18. Yet, amazingly, the Distaff is one of the rare major events that he never has won.
The Hall of Fame conditioner was keen on Adare Manor when she was plucked from a 2 year-olds-in-training sale in Ocala, Florida, for a relatively modest $375,000. Baffert had trained Indian Charlie, winner of the 1998 Santa Anita Derby (G1), who was the filly’s grand sire.
“Indian Charlie was a really nice horse. I also trained his dam, Soviet Sojourn, who was one of my earliest stakes winners. I knew the family well,” Baffert said.
Adare Manor, who is named for the luxury golf hotel in Ireland, was slow to develop, going winless in her first two starts as a juvenile. But once the calendar flipped to her 3-year-old year and the distances of her races increased from sprints to two turns, she blossomed. In back-to-back starts, she won by a combined 25 lengths, including her first stakes victory at Santa Anita. It was no surprise to Baffert that the filly would improve over more ground, given her massive stride. She had two narrow losses in two Grade 2 races before a disastrous effort at Parx in the Cotillion (G1) sent her to the sidelines for the rest of the year.
Observed Baffert, “I gave her some time off because she didn’t act like she was enjoying herself. The freshening was what she needed. She’s had a chance to fill out.”
During her 4-year-old campaign, Adare Manor has reeled off five consecutive wins from six starts, the past four of which were stakes capped by a resounding front-running domination in the Zenyatta Stakes (G2) at her home track of Santa Anita. With the triumph, her career earnings stand on the cusp of one million dollars. A win in the Distaff would both push her into the seven-figure category and provide her trainer with his initial victory in the race.
