Idiomatic vanquishes Nest in gate-to-wire Spinster triumph

Thegate-to-wire victory Sunday for Idiomatic in the Grade 1, $600,000 Spinster Stakes at Keeneland did not simply stamp her as the favorite to win theBreeders’ Cup Distaff next month at Santa Anita. It embossed the changing ofthe guard in the older-female division.

Thatwas as much a result of Idiomatic’s 4 1/4-length victory at even money as itwas how Eclipse Award winner Nest did not fire carrying odds of 4-5. Herfourth-place disappointment made her a beaten favorite for the third time inher last four races dating to the 2022 Distaff.

“Noexcuse,” her jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. said. “No excuse. No excuse. No excuse.”

Nestliterally is stumbling into the 2023 Breeders’ Cup. The 4-year-old Curlin fillywhose three Grade 1 wins made her a champion last year did not break cleanlySunday.

“Shekind of bobbled there as they were getting ready to spring the latch,” saidJacob West, bloodstock agent for Nest’s lead owner Mike Repole. “She kind ofcharged the gate there, and then when they sprung the latch, it didn’t looklike she had her feet up underneath her. She kind of missed the break there.For a filly that likes to be up near the pace or kind of up on it, her game plangot switched over to plan B, and there wasn’t really anything she could do fromthere.”

Ininternational futures betting for the Distaff in less than four weeks, Nest hasdrifted to 5-1. Four-time Grade 1 winner Clairière, a 5-year-old also sired byCurlin, has lost her last two starts and is out to 12-1. Bob Baffert’s Grade 1winner Adare Manor, who is by Uncle Mo and not Curlin, looms in California witha five-race winning streak, but she still can be had for 6-1.

Thenthere is Idiomatic, the 4-year-old filly who, yes, was sired by Curlin andspent seven months on trainer Brad Cox’s bench last year. She has graduatedfrom being a wintertime, synthetic specialist to win four in a row on dirt,collecting her first Grade 1 victory Sunday and shortening into the 2-1 bettingfavorite for the Distaff on Nov. 4 at Santa Anita.

“It’sbeen a while since I won a Grade 1 at Keeneland,” said Cox, who had gonewithout since Caravel scored in the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. “ToddPletcher has normally beat us.”

Notthis time, even though bettors expected Pletcher to deliver again with Nest ashe had Friday with Candied in the Alcibiades and with Locked in the Breeders’Futurity on Saturday. Both were Grade 1s won by Gun Runner 2-year-olds owned byAron Wellman’s Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners. Wellman also is one of the ownersof Nest.

As sheusually does, Idiomatic won from the front end. With Florent Géroux riding herfor the fourth race in a row, the 4-year-old Juddmonte homebred raced to a 11/2-length lead through the first two furlongs of the 1 1/8-mile race. About toturn into a 12-24 mph, backstretch tailwind on a cloudy, 60-degree day,Idiomatic was clocked at 24.49 seconds.

Sixtythreecaliber(16-1) tried to keep up, but she began her fade after a half-mile in 48.31seconds. Bellamore (25-1) took up the chase, but she was no match as Idiomaticeased through three-quarters of a mile in 1:12.24 and a mile in 1:36.82.

Le DaVida (12-1), a 6-year-old who had been last of the six going around the firstturn, was closing late. She never was going to catch Idiomatic, who finishedwith a time of 1:49.82. Le Da Vida was second followed in order by Bellamore,Nest, Sixtythreecaliber and Malloy (57-1).

“Myfilly just keeps on improving, and we know the distance is not a problem,” saidGéroux, who won the 2016 Spinster with I’m a Chatterbox. “She just keepsimproving, and Brad and his team had her at her prime again today.”

Now 11:8-1-2 with $1,416,840 in earnings, Idiomatic’s last three victories came in the1 3/16-mile Delaware Handicap (G2), in the slop of the 1 1/8-mile PersonalEnsign (G1) and now the 1 1/8-mile Spinster.

TheDistaff next month also is 1 1/8 miles, and it will be the 10th race in 11months for Idiomatic.

“She’sa really good workhorse,” Cox said. “Coming into the spring we had a questionmark about whether she would like the dirt or not. She ran well on it in thespring of her 3-year-old season with the one run.”

Afterbeginning the year with three consecutive wins on the Tapeta track at TurfwayPark, Cox decided to switch Idiomatic to the dirt May 6 for the Ruffian (G2), aone-turn mile at Belmont Park. Despite a distant, second-place finish that day,Cox stayed the course.

“It wasa last-minute decision to try the Ruffian,” Cox said. “She ran a good race. Thenwe obviously got her back out around two turns, and she’s just been spot onever since.”

Coxsaid he will ship Idiomatic to California the week of the Breeders’ Cup, keepingher at Churchill Downs for training between now and then. She and Adare Manorwill have all the momentum going into the Distaff, a race that Cox won in 2018and 2020 with Monomoy Girl.

Meanwhile,Nest will try, try again to find the momentum she enjoyed a year ago headedinto the 2022 Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland.

“I kindof thought that maybe this would be what would take her forward into the nextone,” West said. “But they’re horses. You don’t really know.”

WithOrtiz a man of few words after the race and Pletcher already gone back to New Yorkafter his two earlier Grade 1 wins, West was left to speak on behalf of the teamabout whether Nest ran a race through which a line may be drawn.

“To meit is that,” he said, “but you’ve got to get her back to the barn and make sureshe’s all in one piece and there’s no big holes that were missing or something.We wouldn’t think that would be the case. We’ll see.”