Promising filly Vasilika shows enough for spot in Breeders’ Cop
Vasilika didn’t win the Grade 1, $400,000 First Lady Stakes on Saturday at Keeneland in Kentucky, but her rallying third-place finish put her in line for a berth in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf.
Uni ($8) won the 1-mile grass race by 2½ lengths over Juliet Foxtrot, with Vasilika another 1¼ lengths back after being 12th with a quarter-mile remaining. Vasilika had beaten Juliet Foxtrot by a nose going 1 ⅛ miles in the John C. Mabee Stakes on Aug. 31 at Del Mar in San Diego County.
“I think she’s good enough for the Breeders’ Cup,” trainer and co-owner Jerry Hollendorfer said of Vasilika. “The distance was too short for her today, and I knew it was a gamble. She got back way too far, but it’s hard to be critical. We’re in a strange place, and (jockey Flavien) Prat doesn’t ride here. There’s a short stretch on dirt, so it’s probably shorter on turf.”
The Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf is 1¼ miles at Santa Anita, where Vasilika has won 10 straight races. Those wins came before Hollendorfer was banned from Stronach Group tracks, including Santa Anita in Los Angeles County, so his participation in the Breeders’ Cup there is in question.
The Breeders’ Cup Limited controls entries for the two-day event Nov. 1-2, but its officials haven’t commented on Hollendorfer’s situation. He also has a candidate for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint in King Jack.
“I guess I have to wait and see,” said Hollendorfer, who now trains his stable’s horses at Los Alamitos in Orange County.
Santa Anita allowed one of them, Been Studying Her, to run in the Chandelier Stakes for 2-year-old fillies on Sept. 27 with Dan Ward — Hollendorfer’s longtime assistant — listed as trainer. Been Studying Her finished fourth.
Hollendorfer also ran...