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A Breeders' Cup day of racing to highlight future horse racing stars could ultimately bring a familiar face back to Churchill Downs in six months.
A few victories before Bob Baffert won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile with the undefeated winner of the game, another coach with Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks wins was in the winner's circle.
John Servis, who trained Derby champion Smarty Jones in 2004 and won the Oaks with Cathryn Sophia in 2016, won Friday's Juvenile Fillies' Cup with the impressive Jaywalk.
In 18 years, Servis had no starter for the Breeders' Cup. He sent Jaywalk to the starting grid at 5-1. She set the pace early, went all the way around the track and rushed to the right to win a dominant victory over a distance of 5½.
Jaywalk had just won three consecutive victories, two of them in the same style.
"I was looking for a big effort on her part, but I was not expecting her to get her head back," Servis said. "But, Joel (Rosario) said when she left the door, he knew that she had run into his head. And he just took it from there.
Rosario, who also won the Juvenile title aboard the Game Winner, credited for Jaywalk.
"She really broke the ground and only wanted one thing – she wanted to leave," he said. "Then I dropped my hands and I left her happy and I let her do the rest of the way."
She could bring Servis back to Churchill Downs in May for another Kentucky Oaks race.
"It's far, but it would be good, yes," he said.
Change of plan
Hall of Fame coach Shug McGaughey was scheduled to play his first Breeders' Cup junior starter for 17 years on Friday, but Code of Honor was struck off the morning of the race due to a mild fever.
"It has a temperature," McGaughey said. "He left some of his morning meal and we took his temperature and he was 103. He'll be fine."
Code of Honor was the third choice at 5-1 on the morning line. He stumbled at the start of the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes four weeks ago, but still rallied to finish second.
On December 1, Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct Grade 1 was mentioned as a possibility for the Code of Honor. Catholic Boy, a candidate for the Breeders' Cup Classic, won the Remsen last year.
A future star?
The opening day of the Breeders' Cup has been called "Future Stars Friday" – a nod to all the 2-year races on the map – and Bob Baffert might have brought out yet another future contender at the Kentucky Derby.
Improbable – a City Zip son whose father AP Indy was the scribbled father – won the $ 100,000 Street Sense Stakes at the top of the course ahead of jockey Drayden Van Dyke and escaped from the rest of the field by winning the race. 1 mile of 7¼ lengths. It was only the second start of his career for Improbable, who had won his only other previous start: a six-run race at Santa Anita on September 29.
Controversial scratch
Polydream, favorite of Saturday's 5-1 morning line in the Breeders' Cup Mile, was stranded after a few laps around the Churchill Downs track on Friday morning. Polydream is coached by Freddie Head, a five-time winner of the Breeders' Cup, who challenged the vet's decision to scratch his filly, who arrived from France on Friday night. The veterinary examiner decided that Polydream was unfit for the race after watching on the Churchill Trail.
"It's a shame," Head told the Daily Racing Form. "Do you think I'm going to bring a horse to America that's not ready to run?"
Head, who coached Goldikova to win three victories in the Breeders' Cup Mile, told the DRF that Polydream was "awkwardly troting as she had staggered knees".
A first Breeder's Cup
The first race of the Breeders 'Cup 2018 was also the first race of Sprint Juvenile Turf Sprint of the Breeders' Cup, won by Bulletin, which had only one start Friday.
City Zip's 2-year-old son was the first to win a Breeders' Cup race with only a start in the 35-year event.
Presence
The number of spectators announced was 42,249, the highest participation in three cartels Friday of the Breeders' Cup for two days in 2007. Churchill Downs attracted 41,614 fans for Friday in 2010 and 40,677 in 2011.
Santa Anita still holds the record of attendance of the Breeders' Cup Friday at 45,673 two years ago. Friday's record previously belonged to Keeneland, which attracted 44,497 spectators in 2015.
Winners of the Breeders' Cup
Sprint of juvenile grass – Newsletter
Juvenile grass – Newspaper
Young juveniles – Jaywalk
Juvenile grass – Course of action
Juvenile – Winner of the game
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