Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint

Multiple Eclipse Award-winning rider Irad Ortiz Jr. knows how to play a good hand when it’s dealt.

Ortiz expected to rate Cy Fair just a bit in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint but when the daughter of Not This Time broke well in the five-furlong test, Ortiz put her in a stalking position between horses early and then just behind front-running Schwarzenegger on the turn.

Cy Fair then put Schwarzenegger away near the eighth pole and was not seriously threatened the rest of the way in scoring by three-quarters of a length in her first graded stakes start.

In just its eighth year, the Juvenile Turf Sprint has been a welcome addition to the Breeders’ Cup for Ortiz, who has won half of those races. At the other end of that spectrum, Friday’s race that kicked off five Breeders’ Cup races for juveniles provided trainer George Weaver his first victory in the World Championships.

“We’ve come a couple of times, and they’re really tough races to win,” said Weaver, who previously had earned placings in last year’s Juvenile Turf Sprint with Governor Sam and in the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf with Summer of Fun. “You’ve got to bring the right horse. You’ve got to have some luck. It’s an exciting thing for me, our team, my family, and [wife] Cindy. It’s why we do what we do.”

Racing for Swinbank Stables, Medallion Racing, Joey Platts, and Mark Stanton, Cy Fair completed the five furlongs in :56.02 on firm turf. Co-owner Reagan Swinbank noted that Cy Fair refers to the Cypress Fairbanks area of Houston where his mom’s family is from and his mother went to high school. Swinbank said everything felt right Friday in the Del Mar sunshine as his mother was wearing a Cy-Fair High School ring that had belonged to her mother (Helen). Swinbank’s aunt and uncle also made the trip.

“Honestly, it felt pretty good all day,” Swinbank said. “All it takes is a world-class horse, a world-class horse trainer, and a world-class jockey and a great trip. It all came together.”—Frank Angst