British Idiom

Madaket Stables, Michael Dubb, The Elkstone Group and Bethlehem Stables’ British Idiom, the 2.7-1 second choice, inched away late over favored Donna Veloce in a gritty stretch drive to win the 36th running of the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies by a neck on the first day of the 2019 Breeders’ Cup World Championships at Santa Anita Park.

Trained by Brad Cox and ridden by Javier Castellano, British Idiom covered the 1 1/16 miles on a fast main track in 1:47.07 in a nine-horse field of 2-year-old fillies, and remained unbeaten in three starts. It was the second Breeders’ Cup victory for Cox, first in this race, and 11th for Castellano, who also won the Juvenile Fillies in 2013 with Ria Antonia.

Breaking from post 4, British Idiom overcame traffic trouble going into the first turn, racing in fifth as Two Sixty, Bast and Wicked Whisper dueled for early supremacy. On the far turn, Donna Veloce moved four-wide and blew past the leaders at the head of the stretch with British Idiom right behind her.

The two favorites hooked up at mid-stretch with British Idiom pushing ahead at the sixteenth pole and then repulsing another bid from Donna Veloce before pulling clear.

“She’s a really good filly and this was a great race. We were fortunate to come out on top, Javier (Castellano) did a great job,” said Cox. “I’m not so sure she liked the racetrack. It looked like she was struggling a bit to me down the backside. She’s a tough horse, she’s 3 for 3. I liked where we were, but I thought Javier was kind of knuckling down on her as opposed to Keeneland (in the Aclibiades) when she was kind of taking him there a little bit easier. She was fit and she was ready to go today. She’s been touting us the last few weeks and I’m very proud of her.”

Said winning jockey Castellano: “It was pretty rough in the first turn. We bounced around a little bit. Unfortunately, that’s the way it developed, but I took it from there and was very patient and confident because I had the best horse in the race. That’s what she proved in the last part of the running. She kept running in a nice way and she finished really well.”

British Idiom, a Kentucky-bred daughter of Flashback out of the Mr. Sekiguchi mare Rose and Shine, came into the Juvenile Fillies off a 6 ½-length romp in the Grade 1, 1 1/16-mile Darley Alcibiades at Keeneland on Oct. 4. She broke her maiden on Aug. 16 at Saratoga at six furlongs.