On June 25th at the Hipodromo de Monterrico race track in Lima, Peru, Birdie Gold, a five-year-old Kentucky-bred daughter of Birdstone, won the Grade I Classico Pamplona.
Thereby setting off a chain of events that has led to Birdie Gold being set to run in Thursday’s Grade III $100,000 Red Carpet Handicap, the first of eight graded stakes, with purses totaling $1.4 million, over the final four days of the Bing Crosby Fall meeting.
The Classico Pamplona was a “Win and You’re In” event for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Del Mar on November 3. And owner Bernardo Alvarez Calderon knew exactly what to do with a horse that had earned an expenses-paid opportunity to compete in a world championship race.
“Mr. Calderon had sent me a horse for the 2014 Breeders’ Cup named Valient Emilia in a similar situation,” trainer Gary Mandella said Sunday morning. “She had won the qualifier for the Breeders’ Cup in Peru. So we had established a business relationship. He uses Michael Matz on the East Coast and me when the Breeders’ Cup is on the West Coast.”
Birdie Gold was never a factor in the 1 1/8-mile Filly & Mare Turf, finishing 12thof 14 under Mike Smith in a race won by Wuheida.
“We took a shot and it didn’t work out quite as well as we’d hoped for, but I thought she ran well considering the depth and talent of the field,” Mandella said. “And I also think we learned a bit about this mare. I think she needs further than a mile and an eighth and I think the distance ( 1 3/8 miles) of the Red Carpet is going to be better for her. Eleven furlongs, instead of nine, I think is going to help her.”
Birdie Gold, a winner of four of five starts in Peru before being sent to North America, came out of the race in good order.
“What I was really pleased about was the way she bounced out of the Breeders’ Cup race,” Mandella said. “She won her qualifier then had to ship here immediately. There’s a lot of changes that are part of (having) horses come from the Southern Hemisphere. It’s a much bigger adjustment than from France or England because you’re changing hemispheres and bodies go through a lot of changes.
“She didn’t take the race that hard. She bounced right out of it, she’s happy and I thought she was doing so well it was worth going back on short rest.”
Birdie Gold worked four furlongs in :48.40 on Saturday, second-best of 16 at the distance here.
“Her breezes on turf had all been good, but her breeze on dirt (Saturday) was better than any on dirt before the Breeders’ Cup, so that was encouraging too,” Mandella said. “We thought it was a good thing to try (the Red Carpet) in part because there aren’t that many 11-furlong (1 3/8 miles) races for mares in California. We don’t get to do this that often. The East Coast, there’s a nice program. Here, if you have a mare like her there’s not that many opportunities without shipping, or running against the boys.”
The field from the rail: Laseen (Tiago Pereira), Dynamic Mizzes (Gary Stevens), Evo Campo (Rafael Bejarano), Victress (Stewart Elliott), La Manta Gris (Kent Desormeaux), Kiss Me Now (Brice Blanc), Responsibleforlove (Joe Talamo), Do the Dance (Tyler Baze), Galileo’s Song (Mike Smith), Earring (Drayden Van Dyke), Birdie Gold (Mario Gutierrez), Domestic Vintage (Kyle Frey), How Unusual (Corey Nakatani) and Lottie (Flavien Prat).
The Red Carpet will go as the sixth on an eight-race Thanksgiving Day program with an early (11 a.m.) first post to accommodate fans’ holiday plans
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DEL MAR, CA – OCTOBER 28: Birdie Gold, owned by Teneri Farm Inc. and trained by Gary Mandella, exercises in preparation for Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club on October 28, 2017 in Del Mar, California. (Photo by Alex Evers/Eclipse Sportswire/Breeders Cup)
