Ladies Classic field loaded with Breeders' Cup royalty

• There are three former Breeders' Cup champions in the Ladies Classic, tying a record
• Seven of the eights entrants are Grade 1 race winners
• Royal Delta is the defending champion, looking to make it two in a row

ARCADIA, Calif. – Include Me Out is California's best filly, winning a pair of Grade I and Grade II stakes in six starts this year. She's also 15-1 in today's $2 million Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic, the showcase event of the first of two days of championship racing at Santa Anita. "She gets no respect," said owner Samantha Siegel.

That also shows the depth of this field, where seven of the eight entrants are Grade I winners. The eighth, Class Included, is the pride of the Pacific Northwest, with 10 wins and six seconds in 16 career starts, including 5-for-6 at the Ladies' Classic's 11/8-mile distance. She's 30-1.

That's what happens when there's a field boasting three champions, as occurs here with defending Ladies' Classic winner and race favorite Royal Delta, along with the last two Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winners in My Miss Aurelia (4-1) and Awesome Feather (9-5). My Miss Aurelia and Awesome Feather are a combined 16 for 16 in their careers.

It's only the second time in the event's 29-year history that three past Breeders' Cup winners have run in the same race, The 1993 Sprint featured Gilded Time, defending winner Thirty Slews and former 2-year-old champion Fly So Free. (By the way, none won.)

"I think it's the best race of the two days," George Bolton, who owns My Miss Aurelia with Stonestreet Stables' Barbara Banke, said of the Ladies' Classic. "As a racing fan, I can't wait to see who wins. I think there's a chance that one of them steps up and shows a truly brilliant performance. I hope it's us.

"I'm excited about this race, because I'm so excited to see what the others do. If we can have all of them have a chance down the stretch, that's what it's all about."

The Bill Mott-trained Royal Delta comes into the 11/8-mile race off a 91/2-length victory in Belmont's Beldame, a race she lost by 8¼ lengths to Horse of the Year Havre de Grace before winning the Ladies' Classic.

"Just an extremely talented mare," said jockey Mike Smith. "When she brings her A game, we've all seen what she's capable of. (that said), she's going to have to bring it. This is a tough field. Given the opportunity, you could see a pretty special race."

Both My Miss Aurelia and Awesome Feather have had their careers interrupted by injury.

My Miss Aurelia was knocked out of the Kentucky Oaks with a hairline fracture in a shin. She returned at Saratoga to win a small stakes, then nailed Ladies' Classic contender Questing on the final strides to win Parx Racing's $1 million Cotillion for 3-year-old fillies.

Awesome Feather, who bowed a tendon apparently in the Juvenile Fillies, has raced once in nine months, taking a small stakes at Belmont by 111/4 lengths.

After winning Del Mar's Clement Hirsch, Include Me Out was third in Santa Anita's Grade I Zenyatta behind front-running Love and Pride and Joyful Victory, which is running in Saturday's Chilukki at Churchill Downs.

"She's had a long year, and I thought she was starting to get a little tired so I was very easy on her out of the Del Mar race," trainer Ron Ellis said of Include Me Out. "I've cranked her up quite a bit more for this race. And I had Joe (Talamo) take her back a little farther than she should have been last time. The way this track has been playing, if you're not in the first three you're pretty much dead."We'll probably be laying closer, and she'll run a better race."

Love and Pride is the only horse in the field to have beaten Royal Delta, doing so in Saratoga's Personal Ensign. Trainer Todd Pletcher sent Love and Pride out early to California to get settled, and she settled into a big win in the Zenyatta.

"Obviously it's one of the tougher races of the two days of the Cup, if not the toughest," said Pletcher assistant Michael McCarthy. "If you want to beat Royal Delta, everybody needs to bring their 'A' game."

Love and Pride, who was fourth to Royal Delta in the Delaware Handicap, won't have an easy time on the lead.

Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said Questing will allowed to bounce on along at a good clip, as she did in sweeping Saratoga's Grade I Coaching Club American Oaks and Alabama by a combined 13¼ lengths.

In the Cotillion, jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. slowed her down to a half-mile in a crawling 50 seconds, only to drop the narrow victory after a stretch-long duel with My Miss Aurelia.

Grace Hall, second in last year's Juvenile Fillies, won the Indiana Oaks by almost six lengths in her last start.

Rees writes for The (Louisville) Courier-Journal