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Forte, Wonder Wheel Stand Out in Juvenile Divisions

Forte named champion 2-year-old male, Wonder Wheel champion 2-year-old filly.

Forte wins the 2022 Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Keeneland

Forte wins the 2022 Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Keeneland

Skip Dickstein/Tim Lanahan

Trainer Todd Pletcher is no stranger to outstanding 2-year-olds. Heading into 2022, he had two juvenile champions to his credit and owned two Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) wins, along with six in the Champagne Stakes (G1) and three in the Hopeful Stakes (G1), New York's two premier stakes for juveniles.

By year's end most of those totals rose as Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable's Forte  compiled what rates as the most productive season by one of Pletcher's 2-year-old colts. The son of Violence  posted three grade 1 scores with victories in the Hopeful and Breeders' Futurity that preceded a decisive 1 1/2-length score in the Juvenile which made it academic that he would be named the Eclipse Award champion 2-year-old male at the Jan. 26 ceremonies.

"You can argue he's the most accomplished 2-year-old we've had, and we've been fortunate to have a couple of champions," Pletcher said. "He was as dominant as any 2-year-old we've had. What he did is very difficult to do. You don't have that many opportunities to win grade 1 stakes with a 2-year-old and he was near-perfect." 

Bred by South Gate Farm in Kentucky out of the Blame  mare Queen Caroline, Forte won four of his five starts, falling short only in the Sanford Stakes (G3), his second start.

After the Sanford, he returned to take the Hopeful by three lengths and then in his first try around two turns, prevailed by a neck in Keeneland's Breeders' Futurity at a mile-and-sixteenth distance. Four weeks later, he returned to Keeneland as the 5-1 second choice and added the Juvenile to his résumé, covering the same distance as the Breeders' Futurity and beating 2-5 favorite Cave Rock, the Juvenile runner-up and another Eclipse finalist, along with Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (G1T) winner Victoria Road.

"The Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner has a big edge in Eclipse Award voting," Pletcher said. "But when you top it off with two other grade 1s and couple it with a big Breeders' Cup win over the other leading candidate in Cave Rock, it solidified the deal for him."

Bought by owners Mike Repole of Repole Stable and Vinnie and Teresa Viola of St. Elias Stable for $110,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, Forte is the second juvenile champion for Repole, who teamed with Pletcher to win the award in 2010 with Uncle Mo , now a leading stallion.

Wonder Wheel Rewards Casse's Faith
As trainer Mark Casse watched Wonder Wheel improve as spring turned to fall, he couldn't resist sharing the encouraging progress of the 2-year-old filly—even comparing her precocity with that of 2016 champion 2-year-old male Classic Empire.

"I put some pressure on myself, and sometimes I would ask myself, 'Why did I do that,'" Casse said after this year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1). "But I tell people the way I feel."

The pressure most assuredly was off Casse after watching Wonder Wheel rally from 11th early to win the Juvenile Fillies Nov. 4 at Keeneland

Wonder Wheel with Tyler Gaffalione wins the Juvenile Fillies (G1) at Keeneland in Lexington, KY on November 4, 2022.
Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt
Tyler Gaffalione celebrated winning the 2022 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies aboard Wonder Wheel at Keeneland

The victory completed a season in which the daughter of four-time leading sire Into Mischief Wonder Gal, by Tiz Wonderful, won four of five starts and finished second in the one race she didn't win. After rolling to a maiden special weight win June 3 at Churchill Downs, Wonder Wheel captured the Debutante Stakes there. In her next start Wonder Wheel would finish second to Leave No Trace in the Spinaway Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course before closing out the year with back-to-back grade 1 wins at Keeneland as her Breeders' Cup score followed a victory in the Alcibiades Stakes there.

In those season-closing wins, Wonder Wheel showed versatility. She delivered a front-end score in the Alcibiades, holding off Chop Chop. Then in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies she rallied from 11th to post a three-length triumph over Leave No Trace. Guided by Tyler Gaffalione, the 10 horses passed is the most by any Juvenile Fillies winner since Stardom Bound rallied from 12th to win the 2008 edition of the race.

Wonder Wheel is campaigned by Jon and Len Green's D. J. Stable. In partnership with Cash is King, the Green family's D. J. Stable also captured this divisional championship in 2018 with Jaywalk.

Bred in Kentucky by Three Chimneys Farm and Clearsky Farms, Wonder Wheel improved on her dam's accomplishments. At 2 Wonder Gal earned placings in the Frizette Stakes (G1) and the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. A multiple black-type stakes winner, Wonder Gal at 3 placed in the 2015 Mother Goose (G1) and Acorn (G1) stakes. 

The other two finalists for champion juvenile filly this year were WellSpring Stables' Leave No Trace and Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1T) winner Meditate, who is campaigned by the Coolmore-affiliated partners Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, and Westerberg.