Breeders' Cup Juvenile a battle of East vs. West with Ted Noffey and Brant

A pair of undefeated 2-year-olds will square off in Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, the headliner on the first of the two-day championships. It will also be a battle of East versus West, as New York-based Ted Noffey meets California-based Brant.

Ted Noffey is trained by Todd Pletcher and after a maiden win at Saratoga, the son of Into Mischief won the Grade 1 Hopeful at Saratoga going seven furlongs, then stretched out to this same 1 1/16 miles nicely with a victory in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland. 

Ted Noffey, owned by Spendthrift Farm, is named after Ned Toffey, the general manager at Spendthrift. 

“Our impression from talking to Todd, and from what we’ve seen, is that he would handle the stretch-out,” Toffey told Keeneland publicity after the Breeders’ Futurity. “He’s a nice sized, scopey, leggy horse, built to like two turns. The way he ran in the Hopeful would make you think he’d like two turns, but they still have to do it. We were cautiously optimistic, but you just never know until they do it, and he sure did it today.”

Brant matches up with a maiden win sprinting and a victory in the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity going seven furlongs. Trainer Bob Baffert opted not to test Brant around two turns in the American Pharoah at Santa Anita. 

Brant was purchased for $3.2 million at the OBS March sale earlier this year by Zedan Racing. 

Baffert has won this race more than any trainer. His six wins include last year with Citizen Bull, who will run in Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. Pletcher has won this race four times, including two years ago with Fierceness, who will start as a top contender in Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Ted Noffey will break from post 8 with John Velasquez aboard as is the 4-5 morning-line favorite and perhaps the shortest favorite of all 14 Breeders’ Cup races. Brant will get Flavien Prat aboard from post 7 with odds of 5-2. 

The rest of the remaining five runners have just two non-maiden wins to their record. Though, both of those are stakes wins, including Intrepido’s victory in the Grade 1 American Pharoah. In that race, Intrepido, trained by Jeff Mullins, beat four Baffert runners. It also wasn’t Intrepido’s two-turn debut, as he won a one-mile maiden win at Del Mar. The son of Maxmius Mischief is improving and gets Hector Berrios back aboard from the rail with odds of 8-1.

Comport owns that other win, having won a listed stakes at Ellis Park two starts ago. Last out, Comport finished a head back in second in the Grade 3 Street Sense. Tyler Gaffalione will be aboard for trainer Eddie Kenneally from post 4.

Blackout Time has some upside from a betting perspective, as he ran second to Ted Noffey in the Breeders’ Futurity. While he couldn’t really get close to Ted Noffey, it was his first time around two turns and he has a right to improve as well. Trainer Kenny McPeek has Irad Ortiz Jr. to ride from post 2. 

Baffert also starts Litmus Test, fourth in the Del Mar Futurity and third in the Breeders’ Futurity. Mr. A. P. rounds out the field, as Civil Liberty will scratch. 

The Juvenile goes as race 9 on Friday’s 10-race card. The Juvenile Turf will come after the Juvenile, which goes off at 7:45 p.m. Eastern.

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