True Love Looks Like the One in BC Juvenile Turf Sprint

After adding to an already impressive initial campaign with a victory in the Cheveley Park Stakes (G1) Sept. 27 at Newmarket Racecourse, True Love (IRE) will aim for success in North America when she makes her overseas debut in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G1T) Oct. 31 at Del Mar. Scheduled as race 6 on Breeders' Cup Friday, the 5-furlong race for 2-year-olds will be the first Breeders' Cup event of the weekend. The approximate post time for the race that will be capped at 12 runners is 2:45 p.m. PT. True Love is one of the most accomplished runners to ever enter a Breeders' Cup turf race restricted to juveniles. She'll face males in Friday's test but that's nothing new for the daughter of No Nay Never, a homebred for the Coolmore-affiliated ownership of Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, and Susan Magnier. After finishing second in her first two starts, True Love has put together a most impressive four-race stretch of group stakes. She won the Queen Mary Stakes (G2) at the Royal Ascot meeting in June, defeated males in winning the Railway Stakes (G2) at the Curragh, finished second in the Phoenix Stakes (G1) at the Curragh in her group 1 debut (also against males), before taking command of the Cheveley Park Stakes a furlong from the wire. True Love shortens up a bit off the 6-furlong Cheveley Park, but trainer Aidan O'Brien believes she has plenty of early foot to handle that challenge. "She's a big powerhouse," O'Brien told Racing Post after the Cheveley Park. "She's quick and is by No Nay Never, who is a big influence for speed. She's very big, but she's definitely not short of speed." True Love could provide a milestone win for O'Brien as he enters the weekend in a tie with the late D. Wayne Lukas for the most Breeders' Cup victories at 20. O'Brien also will send out group 1-placed Brussels (GB) and Mission Central (IRE), who won an allowance-level race on the British Champions Day card Oct. 18 at Ascot Racecourse. Owners affiliated with Coolmore also will have Kentucky-based Schwarzenegger, a son of Not This Time, in the race. Trained by Wesley Ward, a three-time winner of this race, Kentucky-bred Schwarzenegger enters off a front-end score in the Indian Summer Stakes Oct. 5 on the Keeneland turf. From 2019-21, Ward won the Juvenile Turf Sprint with Four Wheel Drive, Golden Pal, and Twilight Gleaming (IRE). European-trained horses have since captured the past three editions. Intricate Spirit, a Kentucky-bred son of Complexity campaigned by West Point Thoroughbreds, Madaket Stables, and Ken and Gail Beitz, punched his fees-paid ticket to this race with a victory in the Futurity Stakes (G3T) Oct. 3 at Aqueduct Racetrack. The Futurity is a Breeders' Cup Challenge Series: Win and You're In event.