NetJets Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies

Terry Finley of West Point Thoroughbreds and trainer John Sadler don’t shy away from jumping the right horse up several class levels. It worked brilliantly with Flightline, who went straight from allowance to Grade 1 company en route to eventual Horse of the Year honors, and it worked again with Super Corredora in the NetJets Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Oct. 31 at Del Mar.

Super Corredora, owned by West Point along with with Spartan Equine Racing, Robert Gardiner, and Michael Olszewski, actually took a bigger leap than Flightline, going from her maiden victory into the Breeders’ Cup. The boldness of the move may have caught some of the more seasoned runners by surprise.

Bob Baffert had two powerhouse graded stakes winners in the race with Explora and Bottle of Rouge. Todd Pletcher brought double Grade 1 winner Tommy Jo, while Percy’s Bar had outfinished Tommy Jo in the Darley Alcibiades Stakes, only to be disqualified for interference. Bettors gave all four of those runners a better chance than they did Super Corredora, co-fifth choice with Frizette Stakes winner Iron Orchard.

Iron Orchard broke slowly and trailed the field for the entire race, while jockey Hector Berrios took Super Corredora right to the front. Sadler and Berrios had discussed that strategy prior to the race.

“He told me OK, let’s go to the lead,” Berrios said. “So, I go to the lead and the other people I see maybe decide, ‘Ah she is a longshot — you lead.’ She went to the lead and was very comfortable.”

Super Corredora was so comfortable that she was able to surprise the more experienced field. She clicked off quarter-mile fractions of :22.42 and :45.63 through a half-mile, seemingly with little effort.

“I feel that she’s very rhythmic — she’s got a beautiful stride,” Sadler said. “Even if she was going a little fast, I felt that if she was comfortable, she would keep going.”

Super Corredora did indeed keep going. Explora, the 3-2 favorite and winner of the Oak Leaf Stakes Presented by Oak Tree Racing Association, came for her in the stretch. As Explora closed ground from fourth, Super Corredora fended her off, never letting the other filly get even with her. At the finish line, Super Corredora defeated Explora by three-quarters of a length, stopping the timer in 1:43.71. Explora proved best of the others, as her three-length margin to third-place Percy’s Bar demonstrated.

Berrios won his first Breeders’ Cup race, which would have been emotional at any time. He told reporters in both English and Spanish how special it was “with all my family here, my children.” He had come closest before in only his third of his 11 Breeders’ Cup attempts, finishing second by just a nose to Malathaat aboard Blue Stripe in the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

Sadler knows all about coming close without winning a Breeders’ Cup. It took 45 tries until he won the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Classic, Accelerate becoming Sadler’s first winner. Since then, Sadler won the 2022 Classic with Flightline and the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile with Full Serrano, who will try to repeat in that race Nov. 1.

“There was a time when they’d say, ‘He’s the best trainer that hasn’t won a Breeders’ Cup,’ and they stopped that after Accelerate,” Sadler said.

Sadler has trained for West Point for some time, and Finley had high praise for the conditioner.

“He’s one of the best trainers of all time — I truly believe that,” Finley said. “I think he should go to a ceremony at Saratoga in the coming years.”