LEXINGTON, Ky. — Todd Pletcher knows he has a tough task come Friday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Keeneland, but the Hall of Fame trainer is hoping for a home-track edge.
“Hopefully, if we have any sort of advantage, it’s that both horses have run here at Keeneland,” Pletcher said after Monday’s Breeders’ Cup post position draw at Rupp Arena. “They’ve been training here at Keeneland. But Cave Rock has been super impressive.”
Indeed, Cave Rock is the 4-5 morning line favorite for the 5 p.m. race, which often declares the early front-runner for the following year’s Kentucky Derby.
A son of Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Arrogate, Cave Rock is a perfect 3 for 3 this year, including wins in the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity and Grade 1 American Pharoah, each by 5 1/4 lengths. Trainer Bob Baffert is tied with D. Wayne Lukas for the most Juvenile wins with five. Baffert won last year’s Juvenile at Del Mar with Corniche.
But among his 12 Breeders’ Cup wins, the 55-year-old Pletcher has won the Juvenile with Uncle Mo in 2010 and Shanghai Bobby in 2012. His entries this year are Forte, the 4-1 second choice in the morning line who won the Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland on Oct. 8, and Lost Ark, at odds of 20-1.
“I loved the way Forte ran last time,” Pletcher said. “Lost Ark, I think can run a much improved race. He had a difficult trip and he’s come back and trained well.”
Owned by Mike Repole’s Repole Stable and Vincent Viola’s St. Elias Stable, Forte is a won of Violence out of Queen Carolina by Blame. (Repole won the 2010 Juvenile with Uncle Mo.) After a fourth-place finish in the Grade 3 Sanford Stakes at Saratoga on July 16, Forte captured the Sept. 5 Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga before his come-from-behind triumph at Keeneland.
In fact, under jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., Forte dropped to seventh in the 14-horse Breeders’ Futurity field before rallying to take the lead by a head over favorite Loggins in the stretch. He hit the wire a neck in front of Loggins.
“He got a really good education along the way,” Pletcher said. “He was inside of horses, taking some kick-back and worked his way through traffic. I thought it was a very seasoned, professional effort for a young horse.”
Meanwhile, Cave Rock’s running style is to take the lead early. He will be in the No. 3 post on Friday, with Forte starting right beside him at No. 4 in the 10-horse field. Can Forte run Cave Rock down? Or can Chad Brown’s Blazing Sevens (6-1) or Baffert’s National Treasure (8-1) make Cave Rock work early?
“I don’t know if there’s anybody that can really line up and put pace pressure on him,” Pletcher said.
Meanwhile, Lost Ark is a son of Violence out of Marion Ravenwood, by A.P. Indy. Owned by Harrell Ventures, Lost Ark won his first two starts before finishing sixth in the Breeders’ Futurity. He found himself in trouble early and often in that race, checking at the 3/16 mark before advancing from 13th to sixth at the wire.
“That’s a good way to describe it,” Pletcher said of the “early and often” description. “What I did like was is despite all of that early trouble, he still made some impact late.”
So how much does it help a 2-year-old to have experience running on the same track when he goes into a huge race like Friday’s Juvenile?
“The experience of not only having a race over the track, but having a two-turn race is important,” Pletcher said. “You stay in New York, you don’t get that opportunity to get around two turns. So, hopefully, having that experience will help.”
And Forte owns the experience of earning a win on the same Keeneland surface less than a month ago.
“He’s good,” Pletcher answered when asked how Forte has been training coming into the race. “He’s been on a maintenance program. He’s already had three races and a race over this track. We just wanted to keep him fresh and ready.”
