Don't overlook Ashado in Breeders' Cup

COMMENTARY

By Richard Rosenblatt

updated 4:12 p.m. ET Oct. 25, 2005

NEW YORK - Ashado will be one of more than 100 horses competing in the Breeders’ Cup on Saturday, and might be overshadowed by the hoopla surrounding bigger names in bigger races.

That would be a mistake.

Ashado is a star in her own right, a champion filly preparing to close a Hall of Fame career in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

While Lost in the Fog shoots for his 11th straight win in the Sprint, and Saint Liam and Rock Hard Ten battle for Horse of the Year honors in the Classic, Ashado could make racing history of her own.

In her final race before being retired, the 4-year-old Ashado has a chance to become the leading money-earner among fillies and mares (Azeri is No. 1) and only the second horse to repeat in the Distaff (Bayakoa did it in 1989-90).

“It would be a real feather in her cap, and would secure her place in history,” trainer Todd Pletcher said. “And kind of a proud moment for our organization to send one out on that note.”

The fearless bay filly has won 12 of 20 career starts, with four runner-up finishes and two thirds for earnings of $3,711,440. Ashado would top Azeri’s mark of $4,079,820 by finishing first or second.

In six starts this year, she’s won three Grade 1’s — the Beldame, the Go For Wand and the Ogden Phipps. At Belmont Park, which will host the eight-race, $14 million Breeders’ Cup, Ashado has won her last three races.

In what looks like a full field of 14 for the 1 1-8-mile Distaff, Ashado will take on her toughest rivals, including Society Selection and Stellar Jayne — two fillies she defeated in last year’s Distaff. A win would add the older female championship to her 3-year-old filly title.

The Pletcher camp is confident.

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“When she runs we don’t think she’s a cinch, but we think she’s going to win,” said Angel Cordero Jr., the retired Hall of Fame rider who exercises Ashado and other horses for Pletcher.

What sets Ashado apart has been her consistency at the highest level, having raced at 10 different tracks in eight states and winning over both fast and wet surfaces. It’s rare these days for a horse, male or female, to be so good for so long.

At 2, she won four of six races, including the Grade 1 Spinaway and finished second to Halfbridled in the 2003 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita. At 3, she won five of eight, including the Kentucky Oaks and the Coaching Club American Oaks before beating older horses in the 2004 Distaff by muscling her way between horses and into the lead.