Somewhere over the rainbow that suddenly appeared behind the Belmont Park backstretch there may have been a filly capable of catching Inside Information. But none could be found on the mud-splattered racetrack.
The illusion that the $1 million Distaff was the most competitive of the seven Breeders’ Cup races was dispelled when Inside Information won by 13 1/2 lengths, widest margin in the 12-year history of the championship series.
“I’m not sure the winner is that much the best, but she was today,” said Pat Day, rider of runner-up Heavenly Prize, late-moving entrymate of Inside Information.
Fourth in the early going, Inside Information took control late in the backstretch and, with Mike Smith going along for the ride, she swiftly transformed it into a one-horse race.
“The biggest thing Inside Information has that Heavenly Prize doesn’t have is her speed,” said Shug McGaughey, who trains the former for Ogden Mills Phipps and the latter for his father, Ogden Phipps. “Inside Information loves this racetrack and she loves the mud. I’m not surprised.”
Linking two 4-year-old fillies who’d never met on the racetrack, the entry was the 4-5 favorite. Heavenly Prize took the track ranked No. 4 in North America in the Thoroughbred Racing Communications poll, and Inside Information was No. 5.
No. 2-ranked Serena’s Song was the 5-2 second choice. For much of the race Serena’s Song ran third, lacking the authority that her trainer, D. Wayne Lukas, anticipated would enable her to dictate the way the 1 1/8-mile race would be run. Turning for home, jockey Gary Stevens asked her to make her move, but she was spent and fell back to fifth. Longshots Lakeway (14-1) and Forested (133-1) were third and fourth.
“When they don’t like it, they don’t like it,” said Lukas, suggesting that the mud was responsible for the demise of Serena’s Song. “Do you think Inside Information is that much better than this field?”
In winning for the seventh time in eight starts this year, Inside Information was clocked in 1:46. She ran a distant second in her only defeat, the Ballerina at Saratoga, but her chances were compromised when she stumbled leaving the starting gate.
