British Idiom And Donna Veloce Battle In The Stretch
ARCADIA, Calif. (Nov. 1, 2019) – Madaket Stables, Michael Dubb, The Elkstone Group and Bethlehem Stables’ British Idiom ($7.40) inched away late to defeat favored Donna Veloce by a neck to win the 36th running of the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Friday afternoon at Santa Anita.
Trained by Brad Cox and ridden by Javier Castellano, British Idiom covered the 1 1/16 miles on a fast main track in 1:47.07. It is the second Breeders’ Cup victory for Cox, first in this race, and 11th for Castellano who also won the Juvenile Fillies in 2013 with Ria Antonia.
Brad Cox said; “She’s a really good filly and this was a great race. We were fortunate to come out on top, Javier (Castellano) did a great job. I’m not so sure she liked the racetrack. It looked like she was struggling a bit to me down the backside. She’s a tough horse, she’s 3 for 3. I liked where we were. But I thought Javier was kind of knuckling down on her as opposed to Keeneland (in the Aclibiades) when she was kind of taking him there a little bit easier. She was fit. She was ready to go today. She’s been touting us the last few weeks and I’m very proud of her.”
British Idiom raced in fifth in the early going as Two Sixty, Bast and Wicked Whisper dueled for early supremacy. On the far turn, Donna Veloce moved four-wide and blew past the leaders at the head of the stretch with British Idiom right behind her.
The two favorites hooked up at mid-stretch with British Idiom pushing ahead at the sixteenth pole and then repulsing another bid from Donna Veloce before pulling clear.
The victory was worth $1,100,000 and increased British Idiom’s earnings to $1,381,250 with a spotless three-for-three record. British Idiom is a Kentucky-bred daughter of Flashback out of the Mr. Sekiguchi mare Rose and Shine. Javier Castellano said after the race; “It was pretty rough in the first turn. We bounced around a little bit. That was not the idea. The idea was a clear trip and stalking a little bit early. Unfortunately, that’s the way it developed in the first turn. I took it from there and was very patient and confident because I had the best horse in the race. That’s what she proved in the last part of the running. She kept running in a nice way and she finished really well.”
Read More Breeders Cup results here.
