From the Breeders’ Cup Media Team:

Manny Wah – Susan Moulton’s Manny Wah secured his spot in the Sprint by winning the Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix (G2) at Keeneland on Oct. 7. On Wednesday he galloped a customary 1 ½m.

Trainer Wayne Catalano is seeking his second victory in the Sprint following last year’s score at Del Mar by Aloha West, who also is entered. With 34 starts, 6yo Manny Wah has been with Catalano since 2018 and is a barn favorite.

“It is nice to have one like him especially for so long,” he said. “He likes to eat cookies and bananas and everything. We really spoil him.”

Moulton purchased Manny Wah for $175,000 at the 2017 Fasig-Tipton July Yearling Sale in Lexington. She grew up in a racing family and spent time as an exercise rider before drifting away from the sport. About a decade ago, Moulton returned to racing and connected with Catalano to purchase racing prospects. In 2018 she purchased a Thoroughbred farm on the outskirts of Lexington and renamed it Safari North where she raises her horses. She recently married former jockey Shane Sellers, a two-time Breeders’ Cup race winner. Although both had strong ties to Southwest racing, they did not meet until decades later. When looking at win pictures, they noticed that in his early career Sellers had won for her father.

Blazing Sevens – Rodeo Creek Racing’s Chad Brown-trained Blazing Sevens and exercise rider Peter Leiva Roman left Keeneland’s barn 64 and had an easy routine gallop Wednesday morning. Winner of two of his three starts, including the Champagne last out, the son of Brown-trained 2017 Juvenile winner Good Magic will look to emulate his Brown-trained sire.

“I like him going two turn and. I think it will be a plus for him stretching out,” Brown said. “He really doesn’t have a lot of similarities to Good Magic, other than being precocious. He is a bit bigger at this age.”

A $225,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale purchase in 2021, the dark bay colt was third in the 7f G1 Hopeful in September four weeks prior to his one-turn mile Champagne win. He will be ridden by Flavien Prat from post 6 on Friday and has a 6/1 morning line.

“I think the draw will be good for him and he should be able to work out a trip from there,” Brown concluded. “We are really excited about this horse.”

Cave Rock – With trainer Bob Baffert in town and watching from the frontside, Cave Rock, the 4-5 morning line favorite in the FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Juvenile presented by Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance on galloped on the main track Wednesday, visited the gate and later schooled in the paddock. Co-owned by longtime Baffert clients, Mike Pegram, Karl Watson and Paul Weitman, Cave Rock is unbeaten in three starts with an average winning margin of 5 ½ lengths. Baffert said the son of the late Arrogate has had some minor issues getting away from the gate during his short career. “We stood on the gate. He needs it,” Baffert said. “When he gets in the gate he can get a little bit tight in the gate. He wants to sit down a little bit. He would like to lean up and touch the gate. He was fine.” Juan Hernandez, who has ridden the colt in his three races, will be up when Cave Rock leaves from Post 3 in the Juvenile on Friday.

Curly Jack – The son of 2017 Sentient Jets Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) winner Good Magic had a 2m gallop followed by a gate schooling session Wednesday. He had his final timed workout on Oct. 28 going 4f in 49 4/5 a few days after shipping from trainer Tom Amoss’ Churchill Downs base.

“I am at Churchill more than I am here and I wanted to be around him on a daily basis,” he said of the delay in moving Curly Jack.

Michael McLoughlin purchased Curly Jack for $180,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

“I picked him out at the sale and thought he was very athletic,” Amoss said. “His preparation for his first race was very strong and that is indicated by his (second choice) odds. He has always been a forward kind of horse and a very athletic horse on the track.”

The Juvenile is his first start since winning the Iroquois (G3) at Churchill on Sept. 17.

Forte/Lost Ark – Trainer Todd Pletcher has won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) twice, with Uncle Mo in 2010 and Shanghai Bobby in 2012, and he will have two runners going to the starting gate Friday to try to complete the hat trick.

However, Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable’s Forte and Harrell Ventures’ Lost Ark have something going for them that Pletcher’s previous winners did not: Races around two turns and a race over the track where the Breeders’ Cup is being run.

Forte won the Breeders’ Futurity going the 1 1/16m distance of the Juvenile here on Oct. 8, a race in which Lost Ark had a troubled trip and finished sixth.

In comparing this year’s runners to his two past winners, Pletcher said, “They were all very precious and showed their talent right away. They were good students.”

Both colts galloped 1 1/2m Wednesday morning and had schooling sessions in the paddock after training hours.

Hurricane J – AMO Racing USA’s Paulo Lobo-trained Hurricane J will attempt to become a third-generation Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner, as the son of Nyquist (2015) and grandson of Uncle Mo (2010) breaks from post 1 of 10 in the 1 1/16m test. The dark bay 2yo will also be stepping up markedly in distance from a 6f Keeneland allowance on Oct. 8 in which he drew off to win by 3¾ lengths. Previously, he was a nose winner of an Ellis Park maiden on Aug. 28.

“I’m glad that he has speed, because breaking from the rail, he will have to use it,” Lobo said. “I know it’s a huge gap from what he has done to the race that he’s going to run in on Saturday, but he’s very talented. His last race was very impressive and he took to the Keeneland dirt very well.

“We have been galloping him more to get the distance,” he continued. “I think he’s fit enough, but of course I am concerned first time going two turns, but you never know.”

Joe Talamo rides the 30-1 longshot.

Verifying – Trainer Brad Cox will be looking to duplicate the success he had two years ago when he won the Juvenile with future champion Essential Quality when he sends out the promising colt Verifying. The son of Triple Crown winner Justify is coming off a second in the Champagne Stakes to fellow Juvenile entrant Blazing Swords while racing on a sloppy track.

“I don’t think the track was his favorite surface that day,” Cox said. (Jockey) Joel (Rosario) came back and said he tried to hang in there, but he didn’t really think he was getting a hold of the track. I think this is going to be a very good horse around two turns and that’s what he’s going to get on Saturday. I think he is going to make a march forward for sure. The way he’s been training and just how he’s presented himself around the barn, I do think he’s going to really relish the two turns. I’m looking forward to giving him a chance. It’s solid race. He’s got to move forward, but I think he is and if he does, I think he’s going to be in the mix.

American Rockette – Frank Fletcher Racing Operations’ American Rockette, a half-sister to fellow 2022 Breeders’ Cup runner Frank’s Rockette, will make her fourth career start in the NetJets Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) for trainer Bill Mott. On Wednesday morning, she had a routine gallop on the main track in preparation for her first two-turn test, having finished fourth last out in the Frizette over a sloppy surface on Oct. 2.

“She’s a 2-year-old filly who won her first out and she’s a little short on experience,” Mott said. “She’s had three races, but she’s talented, even if she is a little difficult horse to handle. She’s a little flighty. In her second start, she broke and took a right-handed turn and almost went to the outside fence. In fact, the outrider had to get out of the way—but she got back in and wound up coming up through the field and finishing fourth, only beaten three or four lengths and made up a lot of ground.

“We ran her in the mud last time, but she didn’t seem to be the same horse on a muddy racetrack,” Mott continued. “We are going to have to see how she does. This is two turns and everything is going to be a little new to her. We are reaching out a little, but also she’s very talented. With her disposition, being a little flighty, we are always a little uncertain with what she’s going to do.”

Junior Alvarado, aboard for all three previous runs, will be astride. American Rockette was given a 20-1 morning line and will break from post position 11.

And Tell Me Nolies – Trainer Peter Miller will seek his fifth Breeders’ Cup trophy and trainee And Tell Me Nolies will attempt to sew up a championship when she seeks her third consecutive graded stakes win in the Juvenile Fillies. The daughter of 2017 Classic winner Arrogate will break from post three under Ramon Vazquez and was assigned a morning line of 8-1.

“She shipped really well and she has been doing good since arriving here at Keeneland,” Miller said. “She had a big breeze on Friday, so we are in maintenance mode here. I think the three-hole is fine for her, as far as the post. It could have been a lot worse. She’s very tactical and can be wherever she needs to be, as far as early in the race. If the pace is hot, she’ll be back, and if it’s slow, she’ll be close. I’ll leave it up to Ramon and hopefully he works out a good trip.”

Fourth on debut over 5f at Del Mar July 23, the daughter of Grade 1-placed, Grade 3-winning filly Be Fair then reeled off three wins, including the Del Mar Debutante over 7f and Chandelier over 1 1/16m.

“She has shown she’s our best filly from Day One when we bought her at OBS. She’s just a really smart and gutsy filly. She wants to do it and she tries. She wants to win and that’s half the battle with these young horses; getting someone who’s got their mind on running and trying to win. They can maybe outrun a horse who might have a little more ability than they do. But she’s very talented, don’t get me wrong.

“She worked five-eighths in 59 the other day and galloped out in 1:12 and seven-eighths in 1:26 at San Luis Rey and that track will get you fit enough to run anywhere. We’re really happy with where we’re at with her.”

Atomically/Chocolate Gelato – Trainer Todd Pletcher’s 12 Breeders’ Cup victories have been accumulated in nine races but in the Juvenile Fillies, he has been blanked.

That could change this year as he sends out two runners in Repole Stable’s morning line favorite Chocolate Gelato and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Michael Bernard and Harry Colburn’s Atomically.

Pletcher has had 13 entrants in the Juvenile Fillies and had four seconds and two thirds. One of the seconds, Ashado, came back the following year to win the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1), and one of the thirds, Dreaming of Julia, is the dam of the Pletcher-trained Malathaat, one of the favorites for this year’s Distaff.

Chocolate Gelato, who has been favored in all three of her starts, will be making her two-turn debut in the 1 1/16m Juvenile Fillies on Friday.

“I don’t think that will be a question considering how well she finished going a mile in the Frizette,” Pletcher said of going two turns.

Both fillies, with Amelia Green aboard Chocolate Gelato and Nora McCormack aboard Atomically, galloped 1 1/2m this morning and later had a paddock schooling session.

Chop Chop – Trainer Brad Cox will attempt to win his second Juvenile Fillies when he saddles Selective’s Chop Chop for the race. The City of Light filly is going off a very narrow loss to Wonder Wheel in the Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland.

“It was a tough one to swallow because I felt like she ran a winning race,” Cox said. “She just came up a touch short. The main thing is, she came out of it in good order. I feel like she has moved forward from a physical standpoint. She’s put on weight since the race and she’s done exactly what you want to see a young horse do – move forward at the right time. I think if she breaks a little better this time, she has a big shot.”

Grand Love – Two of Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen’s eight Breeders’ Cup wins have come in the Juvenile Fillies, including last year with Echo Zulu, and he will be seeking a third with Three Chimneys Farm’s Grand Love. The Gun Runner filly broke her maiden at first asking by 4 ¾ lengths at Saratoga Aug. 21, but then disappointed as the favorite in the Pocahontas Stakes at Churchill Downs Sept. 17.

“She’s coming off a third in the Pocahontas, a race where we expected better,” Asmussen said. “She’s a very talented filly. She drew nine of 14. It’s going to be a very interesting Juvenile Fillies with the run to the first turn.”

Leave No Trace – WellSpring Stables’ Leave No Trace has proven she has speed and can sprint. In the $2 million NetJets Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Friday she will face the next test for a young horse: going two turns for the first time. The daughter of Outwork by Uncle Mo out of the Good Journey mare Tanquerray trained by Phil Serpe, drew post 13 with jockey Jose Lezcano in the 14-horse field in the 1 1/16m race. “She’s certainly bred to go long and I think her running style will fit, so I’m fine with it. I like it,” Serpe said. “If anything,I think it’s going to benefit her, the two turns versus the one-turn mile. So, we’re good with that.” WellSpring, the racing operation of Dr. George Vukovich and his wife Laura, purchased Leave No Trace for $40,000 as a yearling at the October 2021 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale, and turned her over to Serpe, the veteran New York-based trainer. She easily prevailed going 5½ f in a restricted maiden race at Saratoga on July 20 and showed she could be a Breeders’ Cup horse with somewhat of a surprise victory in the historic Spinaway, run at 7f on the final weekend of the Saratoga meet. In the one-turn, 1m “Win and You’re In” Frizette at Aqueduct on Oct. 2, she ended up third to Chocolate Gelato and You’re My Girl – both of whom are in the Juvenile Fillies field – over a sloppy, sealed track. “It certainly didn’t help hitting the starting gate,” Serpe said. “More than anything, I don’t really think she loved that track condition, to tell you the truth. We’re just going to leave it at that. I just don’t think she finished like she usually does. There’s not much more we can go on other than that. We’ll just move forward after that race.”

While it was clear to Serpe and his staff that Leave No Trace had talent, her victory by 1 ½ lengths at 14-1 over favorite Wonder Wheel in the Grade 1 Spinaway was a big day for the stable.

“We certainly had no expectations, nor did anybody else, with a maiden 2-year-old of running in or winning a Spinaway Stakes,” he said. “We felt very strong about her winning her first race. She was just working sensational works before we left Belmont. And the same thing when we got to Saratoga. They write these maiden auction races which made her eligible to run in a race not stacked with million-dollar horses. We felt very good about her chances of winning. I think the way she did win, kind of showed us that there was more there than we even thought about earlier. But they’re young horses and you just have to kind of take it step by step and see how they go.” Vukovich has been a breeder and an owner for many years, but the Spinaway was his first graded stakes victory. The Spinaway was Serpe’s first graded win in 11 years and his first Grade 1 win in 29 years since Birdonthewire prevailed in the 1993 Vosburgh. Leave No Trace is Vukovich’s first Breeders’ Cup starter and the Serpe’s fourth overall, but first since 2011. Serpe has been training for Vukovich for about five years ago, an unexpected bonus for helping out his longtime friend Jim Ryerson, who was training for Vukovich. “Jim had a horse that was a grass horse, He doesn’t really go to Florida and asked if I wanted to take the horse,” Serpe said. “That’s how I met Dr. Vukovich. And it all just kind of blossomed from there. So, whatever they have, they send half to me and half to Jimmy. He’s the reason we met them in the first place.” Serpe started training in 1984 and according to Equibase stats through Nov. 1, he has saddled 1,063 winners from 7,900 starters and his horses have earned $33 million in purse money. He trained for the prominent New York owner-breeder Carl Lizza, who won many New York Racing Association meet titles with his Flying Zee Stable. Lizza’s unexpected death in July 2011 had a serious impact on Serpe’s business. He lost his major client just before the start of the Saratoga season and within five months the Flying Zee stock was dispersed in a sale. The connection with WellSpring has been a significant addition to the Serpe stable. In 2021, Serpe saddled WellSpring’s Safe Conduct to a victory in the historic Queen’s Plate, Canada’s most important race. This year, Leave No Trace emerged and has earned $258,650. Where once he routinely had 40 horses in this care, Serpe now has 18 as he competes against huge operations on the tough NYRA circuit.

“In my stable, we’re not afraid to run against anybody at any time if we’ve got the horse, because this is horse racing,” he said. “If we’ve got the horse we can beat anybody. It’s a matter of getting your hands on those horses. We haven’t been in that spot, but that’s just how things are. I’m very satisfied with what we’ve done and what I’ve done with my career. That’s the way things are.”

Raging Sea – What she lacks in post position luck, drawing outermost 14, Juvenile Fillies contender Raging Sea may surely make up with a combination of pedigree and promise. Such is exactly what trainer Chad Brown hopes for the Alpha Delta Stables homebred daughter of Curlin, from the immediate family of A. P. Indy.

A determined neck winner of her 7f debut on Aug. 7 at Saratoga, the chestnut filly returned at Keeneland Oct. 7 to lose by a neck, third across the wire, but demoted to fourth for interference. She was assigned a morning line of 8-1 for Friday’s race.

“(Flavien) Prat is going to have his work cut out for him, isn’t he,” Brown said. “If you’re trying to look at it with the glass half-full, you say, well, there’s a lot of speed in the race. If everyone is forward going into that first turn, maybe it spreads the field out and he’s able to guide her over and not lose too much ground into that turn. We’ll have to see. Hopefully she can work out a Zandon-like trip.”

Brown-trained Zandon closed from far back to win April’s G1 Blue Grass Stakes over 9f.

Vegas Magic – Doug O’Neill-trained Vegas Magic galloped 1 1/8 m under exercise rider Connor Murray Wednesday morning in preparation for Friday’s NetJets Juvenile Filles. Owned by Omar Aldabbagh, Todd Cady and Ty Leatherman, the daughter of Good Magic won her first three starts, including the Sorrento Stakes at Del Mar. Her most recent start was a fourth-place finish in the TVG Del Mar Debutante Stakes where she faded in the stretch.

“She’s going to have to really just conserve herself and be patient and quiet in the paddock, the post parade and the starting gate,” O’Neill said. “I think she just got a little bit too anxious before the race last time and spent a lot of her energy early. When the real running was ready to start, she just didn’t have the relaxation and the breath pattern to finish up. We’re hoping for a more mature filly like the one we saw in her first few races.”

The Juvenile Fillies will be Vegas Magic’s first start at Keeneland. With morning-line odds of 30-1, she will break from post one with Abel Cedillo aboard who has ridden her in three of her four starts.

Wonder Wheel – Darley Alcibiades victor Wonder Wheel galloped a mile Wednesday morning at Keeneland for Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse in her penultimate trip to the track before competing in the NetJets Juvenile Fillies on Friday. Owned by D. J. Stable, the daughter of Into Mischief will turn in an easy jog tomorrow morning.

“There wasn’t a whole lot of speed in the Alcibiades,” Casse said. “It looks like there will be a fair amount of speed (in the Juvenile Fillies). We’ve got some New York fillies coming that have only run one turn so they’re going to be doing something they haven’t done before. The first turn is going to be interesting. I would say we’re going to be fairly close (to the pace). I don’t overanalyze that stuff. We’ve got Tyler (Gaffalione), and he’s one of the best in the game so we’ll let him figure that out.”

Casse will be looking to add his first Juvenile Fillies win to his five previous Breeders’ Cup wins. Wonder Wheel will break from post five and Tyler Gaffalione, who has ridden her in all of her starts, will retain the mount. She has morning-line odds of 5-1.

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