Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint Picks 2017

Turf Sprint Entries and Odds

The second race on Day 2 of the 2017 Breeders' Cup World Championships, this year's Turf Sprint brings a lot of intrigue for a few different reasons. Only one filly has ever won the race, that being Mizdirection, who actually won it twice, in 2012 and 2013. Only one three-year-old has ever won, that being Bobby's Kitten in 2014, and only one Europen-based horse has won, that being Obviously last year.

However, for 2017, the early consensus for the top two contenders happen to both be fillies, happen to both be Euros, and the top choice happens to be a three year old.

That filly is Lady Aurelia, who sports a record of five wins, a second and a third in seven lifetime starts, with two of those being Group 1 wins in England and France. In addition, she's already raced, and won, twice in the US at Keeneland, most recently when she took the Giant's Causeway Stakes last May with relative ease.

Across the pond, she beat a group that included older colts two starts back at Royal Ascot, and last out was beaten by a nose in a Group 1 on a soft course that may not have been to her liking. She'll get firm turf to run on in California, and is a solid contender for the win.

Irish Filly Looking for Another Upset

The filly that beat her last out is the second of the two European contenders here in the form of Marsha. A four year old for trainer Sir Mark Prescott, she's been in the money in 15 of 17 lifetime, with seven wins, including a Group 1 last season.

While she doesn't have as good of overall form through her career as Lady Aurelia, she's been highly competitive in all of her races and if she can transfer that to her first US start, she's a logical choice to get onto the ticket.

Of the North American based horses, Disco Partner is a late-runner who took advantage of a very quick pace last out in the Belmont Turf Invitational to close on the leaders in deep stretch to get the win by 1 1/4 lengths in a time only 1/10th of a second off the track record. Prior to that he tried to go a mile in the (G1) Fourstardave and came up short in a race won by top BC Mile contender World Approval. If he gets some pace to run at there's no doubt he'll be flying late, but he may run out of track before he gets to the front.

Digging deeper for some value in the exotics, Richard's Boy has done his best running at the five furlong distance and sports a pair of wins and a pair of in-the-money finishes at the track and distance, although both those wins came in lower level races. With blazing early speed, the plan for him will be to get to the front as fast as possible and try to hang on for as long as he can.

The Turf Sprint goes Saturday, November 4 from Del Mar race track in Del Mar, California. It's the second of nine Breeders' Cup races on the day, with an expected post time of 3:37 PM Eastern.

Entries w/ Odds from Bovada