NEWS
Undefeated Shakespeare, Sweet Symphony to face new challenges
Posted: Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Shakespeare and Sweet Symphony will carry unbeaten records along with question marks into their starts for trainer Bill Mott on Saturday on the Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships preview card at Belmont Park.
Shakespeare will stretch out beyond 1 1/8 miles for the first time in the 1½-mile Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Stakes (G1), while Sweet Symphony will face older rivals for the first time in the Beldame Stakes (G1).
Both horses are undefeated in four career starts.
Shakespeare blew past Grade 1 winner Meteor Storm (GB) at the top of the lane to win the Belmont Breeders' Cup Handicap (G2) by 3¾ lengths on September 11 in his graded stakes debut.
The four-year-old son of Theatrical (Ire) won a 1 1/16-mile allowance race on July 27 at Saratoga Race Course in his only other start this year after missing more than a year with a knee injury.
"Shakespeare has to go an additional three furlongs than he has ever been before," Mott said. "I'm confident that he's a very good horse, but I think that the mile and a half is something that he has to try to prove that he can do. We've tried horses in the past that appeared able to get the trip, but the last eighth of a mile might get them in the end. I'd feel very confident in saying that he'd be a very top quality horse at a mile and a quarter, but let's just see how he does this weekend and then we'll know if we have a horse for the Breeders' Cup."
Sweet Symphony has answered every challenge in a career that began less than five months ago, including a runaway victory by 6¼ lengths in the Alabama Stakes (G1) on August 20 at Saratoga in her stakes debut.
The three-year-old daughter of A.P. Indy will cut back to 1 1/8 miles and one turn in the Beldame, which also is expected to draw 2004 champion three-year-old filly Ashado.
"I was actually quite confident in her going [into the Alabama], but we're meeting a new group and cutting back an eighth from a mile and a quarter, which it seems she was very good at," Mott said. "She's doing well, and she seems to be top class. I don't know how much better she has to get from her Alabama win. It seems to me that if we can just get her to reproduce that, she'll be a big factor in whatever she may go in."
Mott acknowledged that Sweet Symphony is racing for divisional honors, in addition to a berth in the Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1).
"I think we really have two objectives on the line here," Mott said. "Number one, we're preparing for the Breeders' Cup, but number two I think we're looking at a divisional championship. If she wins the Beldame or the Breeders' Cup, you'd really have to consider her for a divisional championship."—Jeff Lowe
