A Year Makes a Difference in Breeders' Cup Distaff

Last year the BC Distaff was all about Untapable. The Tapit filly had a dream year, in which she had won 5-of-6 (her only loss coming when taking on males in the Haskell Invitational) coming into the Breeders' Cup, including a win in the Kentucky Oaks. Going off as the heavy favorite, she didn't disappoint, cruising to a solid victory, capturing not only the Distaff, but the Eclipse Award as champion three-year-old filly. Although not running to 2014 form, she was supposed to be back in the 2015 Distaff to defend her title.

ML choice appears at top of her game

With fate intervening to make Untapable a Breeders' Cup-week scatch, a number of others have now drawn attention in what looks to be a very wide open race. Leading the field as 5-2 morning line favorite is Sheer Drama. A back-to-back Grade 1 winner coming into the Distaff, the Florida-bred has been first or second in every one of her races this year, coming out on top of Untapable and Got Lucky (6-1 in the Distaff ML) in her last.

Others have shown solid speed in preps

Sheer Drama will have to overcome starting from the widest post, however, and if that proves too much, others will be there to take advantage, including Wedding Toast (4-1), also a back-to-back Grade 1 winner, who will be trying to prove she can get the job done outside of New York. She has one trip over the Keeneland surface, finishing 4th earlier this year in the (G1) Madison Stakes. Breaking from the inside of the Distaff gate is I'm A Chatterbox (8-1), who just collected her first Grade 1 score after a pair of runner-up finishes this summer at that level, and who before that ran third in the 2015 Kentucky Oaks.