Village Voice winning the Waya at Belmont at the Big A. (Chelsea Durand)
Filly & Mare Turf
Breeders’ Cup Closer Look
Resolute Racing’s Village Voice (GB) is flying a little under the $2 million Maker’s Mark Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1) radar and that is perfectly fine with trainer Chad Brown, whose 31 previous starters in the race begat winners Zagora (FR) (2012), Dayatthespa (2014), Stephanie’s Kitten (2015) and Sistercharlie (IRE) (2018). A British-bred daughter of Zarak who is listed at morning-line odds of 15-1 and breaks from post 4 under Flavien Prat, Village Voice enters with plenty to find on form, but no small amount of promise in what will be only her second start for America’s top turf conditioner.
“I am happy to run with her,” Brown said. “I spoke to John and Chelsey Stewart about it, while they paid a lot of money for her, and the hope is always that you can earn your way into big, meaningful races like this. That said, this was a joint decision and I’m very happy to bring her over here and run.
“If I could draw an inside post with this filly second off that layoff, I think you have a nice, fresh filly going in who is moving forward,” Brown continued. “We’ve had a lot of success at Del Mar and Santa Anita over the years and she fits that mold. I’m not perfectly certain she’ll love fast Del Mar ground, but I think she should be fine on it. What I do love is how she runs the turns and accelerates around them—this is something that could bring her the opportunity to maybe grab a piece of this race.”
Making her first 12 starts in Ireland and France for Jessica Harrington, Village Voice made her stateside debut nearly one year after her most recent start when taking Aqueduct’s Waya (G3) on Oct. 5, inhaling her foes in the final furlong to win by a neck. It was her fifth win from a baker’s dozen and stamped her as one to watch. She was purchased by Resolute at the Tattersalls December Mare Sale in 2024 for $1,727,463, two months after finishing fourth in the British Champions Fillies & Mares (G1). Her top winning effort prior was a neck victory in Saint-Cloud’s Prix de Flore (G3) in October 2023.
“She will have to take a fair move forward, but then again, I sort of worked backwards looking at the American horses first, thinking that if she fits with those, I would take my chances with who ships over,” Brown concluded. “Some years they send great ones, sometimes it’s not their best Euros—on top of that sometimes they don’t take to our courses. The three-turn Filly & Mare Turf is not our top group. I’ve said it over and over again—it’s two-turn horses in America—and it didn’t take a lot for Village Voice to make up a lot of ground on this division because it’s not our strongest group.”
