Untapable, Close Hatches set for Distaff duel

Kentucky Oaks winner Untapable will seek to cap a stellar 2014 campaign on Friday in the $2 million Distaff, feature race of the opening day of the $25 million Breeders' Cup.
The three-year-old Tapit daughter has won seven of her 10 career races, including three Grade Ones, for trainer Steve Asmussen.
He says she's "as good as she's been" coming into the 1 1/8-mile, $2 million Distaff, one of four races on Friday's Breeders' Cup card with nine more set for Saturday at Santa Anita racetrack.
"She's had a tremendous year to this point, but having success in the Distaff would really top it off," Asmussen said of the filly that will break from the 10th stall ridden by Rosie Napravnik.
"She has a tremendous amount of talent and has been able to display that in several races this year."
The Distaff -- the premier Breeders' Cup race for fillies and mares -- has produced such illustrious winners as Zenyatta and Royal Delta.
The flavor of the race changed markedly earlier this month when 2013 winner Beholder was ruled out after developing a fever.
But plenty of quality remains.
Top four-year-old filly Close Hatches, trained by Bill Mott, will break from the far outside 11th post with Joel Rosario in the saddle and was installed as the 3-1 early second choice.
Mott is looking for his sixth win of the year with Juddmonte Farms' Close Hatches, but the she'll have to bounce back from a disappointing fourth place in the Spinster Stakes at Keeneland on October 5.
Mott believes that showing was an aberration, and she'll return to the form that produced four straight wins -- including three Grade Ones -- earlier this year.
"It was a little bit of a head-scratcher," Mott said of the Spinster. "She'd been perfect all year ... All I know is that she came out of it well and she's been training well since that race."
While Beholder is absent, 2013 Juvenile Fillies winner Ria Antonia graduates to the Distaff.
Since her Breeders' Cup victory last year, her best showing is a runner-up finish in the Spinster behind Don't Tell Sophia -- purchased for $1,000 as a yearling that at six years old is an unlikely Breeders' Cup contender.
Friday's other races are the $1 million Juvenile Turf, the $1 million Juvenile Fillies Turf and the $1 million Dirt Mile.
Source: AFP