Owners and trainers of thoroughbreds mostly hope their promising charges will stick around all season without calamity. Todd Pletcher's schoolee Octave is one who has.
It's always in the shadows of the thoroughbred racing track. Calamity. Injury. Career ending missteps.
Owners and trainers begin their charges' special three-year-old seasons with those shadows ever present, hoping to make the right decisions and get positive, injury free results. Recently, trainer Todd Pletcher's great filly, Belmont Stakes winner Rags to Riches, suffered a hairline fracture. She will not race again this year. Perhaps she'll not race again at all. A heart-breaker.
But Pletcher has been under-the-radar-successful with a gray filly, Octave, this year. As the season progressed, so did Octave. She wasn't the stable's headliner. That was Rags to Riches. Nonetheless, it is Octave who survives and challenges as the world championships approach. At the end of this month, Octave will carry the Pletcher flag at full mast into the Breeders' Cup Distaff, the year's most prestigious race for fillies. Unbridled Belle and Indian Vale will also shoe up for the Pletcher team.
In June, the Triple Tiara for fillies kicked off with Cotton Blossom winning over Dream Rush and Christmas Kid in the $250,000 one mile Acorn Stakes at Belmont. In the day's co-feature race, the 1-1/8 miles $250,000 Mother Goose, Octave came on as the favorite and didn't disappoint. She outbattled Lady Joanne down the stretch, while Boca Grande finished third.
In July, Octave showed up again, winning the Coaching Club American Oaks, the third event of the Triple Tiara, a $300,000, 1-1/4 miles chase. She won the stretch duel again, this time over Lear's Princess and Folk.
Pletcher will have a stable load of hopefuls, fillies and colts, at the Breeders' Cup World Championships on October 26 and 27. Perhaps, Octave will be his greatest hope.
