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Ted Noffey (the horse). (Courtney Snow/Past The Wire)
Punches ticket for the $2 million FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1)
Keeneland Release
LEXINGTON, Ky.—Heavily favored Ted Noffey swept past pace-setting Litmus Test at the top of the stretch and went on to a 2¾-length victory in the Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity (G1) for 2-year-olds to remain undefeated.
Trained by Todd Pletcher and ridden by John Velazquez, Ted Noffey completed the mile and a sixteenth on a fast main track in 1:43.98. It was the third victory of the afternoon for Pletcher and fourth of five for Velazquez.
The victory marked the third time Pletcher and Velazquez teamed up to win the Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity. They won in 2013 with We Miss Artie and in 2014 with Carpe Diem. Pletcher also saddled the winner in 2022 with Forte and 2023 with Locked.
Saturday marked the second time Velazquez has ridden five winners in one day during the Fall Meet, a feat he accomplished on Oct. 4, 2014, on seven mounts. He had eight mounts Saturday. In addition to Ted Noffey, he won the Thoroughbred Club of America on Praying. His other victories came on Outfielder in the third, Tenacious Leader in the fourth and Heartily in the 11th.
In the Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity, Litmus Test led the field of six through fractions of :23.96 and :48.23 with Ted Noffey just to his outside off his flank. Ted Noffey ratcheted up the pressure on the turn, took command entering the stretch and easily held off Blackout Time for the victory.
A Keeneland sales graduate, Ted Noffey is a Kentucky-bred son of Into Mischief out of the Old Fashioned mare Streak of Luck. Now a two-time Grade 1 winner, Ted Noffey has earned $617,963.
Ted Noffey returned $3.84, $2.62 and $2.10. Blackout Time, ridden by Cristian Torres, returned $2.80 and $2.24 and finished 2¼ lengths in front of Litmus Test, who paid $3.04 to show under Flavien Prat.
It was another 6¾ lengths back to Diciassette, who was followed in order by Spice Runner and Big Dom.
Racing continues Sunday afternoon with a 10-race program that features three stakes races headlined by the $650,000 Juddmonte Spinster (G1) with reigning Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna.
Keeneland will offer a Super Hi Five carryover of $12,990.
Quotes from the $650,000 Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity (G1) at Keeneland
John Velazquez (winning rider of Ted Noffey): “The good thing about him is that he’s actually pretty kind. I know he breaks pretty well out of there, let him run to the first turn, put the bit in his mouth — just kind. He answers right back to you. That’s the great thing about him. He’s not a horse that’s going to be running off. When he gets close to the horse on the lead, he wants to get a little aggressive, so I took a little hold of him so he wouldn’t go too early, but after that he was pretty easy and agreeable, kept the head in front of him. Once he opened up in the lane, he started easing up, waiting for the other horses, so I was kind of keeping him busy. Got to give it to the team (of trainer Todd Pletcher) to get him ready. They did a great job.”
Todd Pletcher (winning trainer): “Everything in his training indicated to us that he wouldn’t have any issue with (two turns). It’s always great to see them actually do it. It worked out beautifully today. He had a good trip to the first turn, got into a good rhythm and was just kind of waiting on (jockey) Johnny (Velazquez) to give him the cue. It was what we were hoping for and what we expected but, like I said, you always want to see it.”
Ned Toffey (General Manager of winning owner Spendthrift Farm), On Spendthrift’s four wins today at Keeneland, including one with Repole Stable, and five across the country: “I’m sure going to enjoy it, because there’s plenty of them that go the other way. It’s a tough game, and when you have a day like this, you’d better enjoy it because tomorrow might be a lot worse. It’s a lot of fun. We’ve been really fortunate. We have great ownership behind us that support everything, a wonderful team, and we’re just in a great situation and in a position to have this kind of success. Hopefully it will continue, but it’s a great day and we’re sure going to enjoy this.”
On the two-turn performance: “Our impression from talking to (trainer) Todd (Pletcher) and from what we’ve seen is that he would handle the stretch-out. He’s a nice sized, scopey, leggy horse, built to like two turns. The way he ran (winning the Spendthrift Farm) Hopeful (G1 at Saratoga Sept. 1) would make you think he’d like two turns, but they still have to do it. We were cautiously optimistic, but you just never know until they do it, and he sure did it today.”
Cristian Torres (rider of runner-up Blackout Time): “We had a perfect trip. (Trainer) Kenny (McPeek) and I talked (and planned) to just let him break and don’t take anything away from him. He got into the first turn and the horse took the lead and I just stayed behind him. He was following beautifully then I took him out. The horse that beat us is a great horse, but I really like how my horse is coming from breaking his maiden to a Grade 1. He delivers. He gave me everything he had.”
Kenny McPeek (trainer of Blackout Time): “He had a great effort; the horse hadn’t run in two months. We’ve been sitting and waiting for this race. He proves he belongs at the highest level, and we’re going to be conservative with him. I don’t know that I’m going to take him to California (for the Breeders’ Cup World Championships) right now. We’ll contemplate it but he doesn’t have to go. We could sit and wait for the Kentucky Jockey Club (G2 Nov. 29) and feel really good about it.”
“I’m really more interested in what he does next year, as much as this year. I think he’s a horse that’s made for the Triple Crown and we’ll contemplate next steps.”
“We want to have him ready for Churchill in the spring. If I had to decide today, I’d probably go to the Kentucky Jockey Club.”
“(He’s a) big, developing horse, beautiful mover, great mind. You’re going to hear about him in the spring, too.”
Flavien Prat (rider of third-place finisher Litmus Test) ;“I had a good trip. I thought he was traveling well on the front end and made a good effort.”
