RESULT: three winners from four. ✅ Libertango won the Juvenile Turf Sprint (6/4), ✅ Sun Goddess won the Juvenile Fillies Turf (5/6) and ✅ Haffner won the Juvenile Turf (10/3). About +4.2 points on the night. Saturday’s star selections and podcast part two follow this morning.
The Breeders’ Cup starts tonight at Keeneland in Kentucky. Friday is Future Stars day: five Grade 1 races for two-year-olds, and Europe has sent its strongest team in years. The going is good and the forecast is warm and dry, so there are no ground excuses for anyone.
These are our special plays for Breeders’ Cup Friday. They sit alongside today’s usual Nap, which went out this morning as normal.
Listen: Tom and Jack talk through all four plays on the Racing Brief Podcast: watch on YouTube or listen at racingbrief.com/podcast.
The plays
- Libertango, 6:55pm Juvenile Turf Sprint: 1 pt win (6/4)
- Miss Monica, 7:35pm Juvenile Fillies: 1 pt win (5/2)
- Sun Goddess, 8:15pm Juvenile Fillies Turf: 1 pt win (5/6)
- Treble on all three: 1/2 pt (about 15/1)
- Haffner, 9:35pm Juvenile Turf: 1 pt win (10/3)
Best UK prices at 9:45am Friday. They will move, so take the best you can find. All times UK.
6:55pm Juvenile Turf Sprint: Libertango
George Boughey’s filly has the best form in the race by a distance. She won the Albany at Royal Ascot, in a field of 25, with Sun Goddess behind her, then added the Lowther at York. Last time she was second to Sun Goddess in the Cheveley Park, a Group 1 run that would win most years. Top American rider Flavien Prat takes over, and stall 3 is a good draw over five and a half furlongs.
The worry is the start. She tends to break slowly and has never raced round a bend, and over this trip there is little time to make up ground. The danger is the home-trained Brickyard Belle. But if Libertango jumps on terms, she should be too good.
7:35pm Juvenile Fillies: Miss Monica
Our one on the dirt. Bob Baffert’s filly won the Del Mar Debutante, a Grade 1, by more than six lengths, and she has been training in Kentucky since September, so she should be well settled. Flavien Prat rides again.
Two questions. This is her first time beyond seven furlongs, at a mile and a sixteenth with two turns, and Emphatic, unbeaten in three, is a serious rival. It’s a fair price for a filly who has looked a cut above.
8:15pm Juvenile Fillies Turf: Sun Goddess
The banker of the night. Aidan O’Brien’s filly has won six of her eight races, the last five in a row, with three Group 1s among them, including the Moyglare and the Cheveley Park. She also won the Goffs Million by six lengths despite trouble in running. Ryan Moore rides.
A mile is new, and stall 9 means a bit of work to find a position before the first bend. But she can lead or sit just behind, and her pedigree suggests she will stay. Amusingly, the French filly, is the main threat.
9:35pm Juvenile Turf: Haffner
The value play to finish. Haffner won the Royal Lodge at Newmarket and is a bigger type than stable-mate Great Barrier Reef, and he stays further. That should help over a full mile at a championship pace. Christophe Soumillon is booked, and stall 4 is ideal.
Joseph O’Brien’s Folsom Blues, an easy winner of the National Stakes, is the one to beat. But the market has come our way this morning, and we’re happy to back Haffner to win.
Saturday
We want to see how the track rides tonight before we commit to Saturday, especially how the European runners handle it. Our Saturday plays and part two of the podcast follow on Saturday morning.
Prices, non-runners and results as they happen: join our free Telegram channel, t.me/racingbrief. Race times, the full plays and last year’s winners on the Racing Brief Breeders’ Cup page.
18+ only. Please enjoy your racing responsibly. These special plays sit outside the daily Nap record.
