Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf

It’s not as if the guy hasn’t been trying. Christophe Clement, the Ernie Banks of the Breeders’ Cup, entered the 2021 championship with a big, fat 0-for-40 around his neck, spread over 24 years of understandable frustration. His credentials were otherwise flawless, his reputation envious, and his Breeders’ Cup record, for all those losses, was hardly the stuff of abject failure.

Then again, the timeline is brutal:

Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, Gulfstream Park in 1999, Coretta takes the lead deep in the stretch and won’t give up, finally losing by three-quarters of a length to Soaring Softly.

Breeders’ Cup Mile, Belmont Park, 2001, Forbidden Apple opens up in the stretch but is caught in the final yards by Val Royal and finishes second.

Breeders’ Cup Classic, Santa Anita Park in 2009, Gio Ponti has everything beaten and the wire in sight when the unbelievable happens, and Zenyatta sweeps past to break Clement’s heart.

TVG Breeders’ Cup Mile, Churchill Downs in 2010, Gio Ponti and Clement are back for more punishment, this time finishing second to the star European mare Goldikova.

Breeders’ Cup Mile, Santa Anita in 2013, Za Approval finds himself on the lead inside the eighth pole with only one horse behind him making a serious run. Unfortunately, that horse is Wise Dan, who gets up to beat Clement by three-quarters of a length.

Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, Del Mar in 2017, Rushing Fall gets first run, but then here comes Best Performance for Clement and Jose Ortiz. Will they get there? Nope, done in by the short stretch, they are second by three-quarters of a length.

It was the memory of that race Clement must have been suppressing as Ortiz was snaking his way through the guts of the field on Friday in this year's edition of the Juvenile Fillies Turf. Fate was being a tease once again. Pizza Bianca – bred, owned, and obviously named by Bobby Flay – looked certain to hit the board, but what else was new? So did Disco Partner, Pure Sensation, and Flag Down for Clement, all banking nice paydays but forgotten in time.

Then something miraculous occurred. A seam opened late, and Ortiz plunged the Fastnet Rock  filly through to a half-length victory over the fast-closing Malavath, who in turn beat the Chad Brown-trained Haughty by a neck for second.

Before the race, as Clement waited for Pizza Bianca to arrive at the Del Mar receiving barn, it was suggested that this one could be the one to strangle the albatross once and for all, and that the trainer should prepare for a grand celebration if it should happen. Clement knew better, though. Forty slaps without a kiss will do that to a fellow. Whatever happens, he figured, “I’ll just go back to New York.”

He can float home now on the wings of the dark bay filly who was a solid second in her previous race, the Natalma Stakes at Woodbine.