Daily Racing Form expert handicapper and analyst Brad Free previews the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint 2025, including the entries, odds, and past performances of the field.
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It took forever for the first Breeders’ Cup race on Saturday at Del Mar to finally get here – or so it seems for the one-two favorites in the BC Filly and Mare Sprint, both trying to recapture former glory.
Sweet Azteca and Tamara, Grade 1 winners in 2024 and 2023, respectively, have resuscitated careers that were slipping away. It happens to humans and horses. Glory days will pass you by. Sometimes they come around again. That is the hope for Sweet Azteca and Tamara in the Filly and Mare Sprint, race 4 on Saturday.
Sweet Azteca, now 5, has regained top form this year for trainer Richard Baltas and owner-breeder Pam Ziebarth. She won the Grade 1 Beholder Mile in early 2024 for trainer Michael McCarthy, then was sidelined before the BC Filly and Mare Sprint. This year, Sweet Azteca is the 2-1 program favorite.
The Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint will be Race 4 in your Saturday Del Mar program with post time expected to be 3:00 p.m. ET on November 1.
Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint 2025 Entries, Horses, Jockeys, and Trainers:
| Post | Horse | Jockey | Trainer | Odds |
| 1 | Zeitlos | J. Rosario | S. Asmussen | 20-1 |
| 2 | Splendora | F. Prat | B. Baffert | 8-1 |
| 3 | Vahva | I. Ortiz Jr. | C. DeVaux | 12-1 |
| 4 | Tamara | M. Smith | R. Mandella | 7/2 |
| 5 | Fee Blanche | H. Yoshihara | T. Fujita | 130-1 |
| 6 | Sweet Azteca | J. Hernandez | R. Baltas | 2-1 |
| 7 | Haulin Ice | T. Gaffalione | S. Joseph Jr. | 20-1 |
| 8 | Hope Road | J. Oritz | B. Baffert | 4-1 |
| 9 | Richi | L. Saez | B. Baffert | 5-1 |
| 10 | Praying | J. Velazquez | R. Medina | 20-1 |
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“I just want to get her there and have the experience,” Baltas said. Winning a Breeders’ Cup race “would mean everything, especially because I haven’t won one.”
Neither has Ziebarth, though she was along for the ride with 2000 and 2001 BC Classic winner Tiznow, co-owned by Ziebarth’s late mother Cecilia Straub Rubens.
“If I can win the Breeders’ Cup for [Ziebarth], it would be a huge deal,” Baltas said. This week at Del Mar, the pressure was building because Sweet Azteca has a history of setbacks. She has been sick. Her feet have bothered her. She was sidelined nine months with an undisclosed ailment.
“She seems like a horse that’s not okay until she gets in the gate,” Baltas said. Because with Sweet Azteca, things happen. “It’s not like she’s unsound, it’s just little [stuff], like when she got a temp and missed a work” in late September and early October.
“One time [June 1 at Santa Anita] I had to scratch because she had a nick on her leg and her leg blew up,” Baltas said. “She was 3-5 in that race.”
Sweet Azteca recovered, like she always does. She returned five weeks later than scheduled to set the Los Al track record [1:14.32].
Sweet Azteca, 7 for 9 in her career, can win the Filly and Mare Sprint with a front-running/pace-pressing trip under jockey Juan Hernandez if she reproduces her track-record victory at Los Alamitos.
Sweet Azteca is by Sharp Azteca and produced by So Sweetitiz, a Ziebarth-bred mare whose pedigree traces to the family of Tiznow.
Tamara also has waited a long time for Saturday. The Filly and Mare Sprint could provide Breeders’ Cup redemption for Tamara, two years after she misfired as the odds-on favorite in the BC Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita, where she finished seventh.
Tamara, like Sweet Azteca, has been plagued by interruptions. Sired by Bolt d’Oro and produced by three-time Breeders’ Cup winner Beholder, Tamara is trained by Richard Mandella and owned by Spendthrift Farm. Due to setbacks, the 4-year-old filly has raced just five times, winning three.
“It was one thing after another,” Mandella said, and he rattled them off. “Splint bone [in the Breeders’ Cup]. She’s been sick a few times. She came off the track one day and kicked the fence and chipped a sesamoid. We fussed with that, and finally took it out, and now it’s good.”
Tamara returned from a 10-month layoff Oct. 4 with a solid win in the Grade 3 Chillingworth at Santa Anita. It was the ideal comeback under jockey Mike Smith, who rides her Saturday. The 4-year-old Tamara is better than the 2-year-old version that crushed the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante at the same racetrack and same seven-furlong distance as Saturday. But Tamara is a different filly.
“She wasn’t very big as a 2-year-old, just gifted,” Mandella said. “Now she’s kind of filled out, and muscled up, looks good.”
Tamara has worked exceptionally well since her comeback, and the 7-2 second program choice will not face a stablemate that might have been favored in the Filly and Mare Sprint. Kopion will run against males in the BC Sprint.
After the top pair is the Bob Baffert-trained trio of Hope Road, Richi, and Splendora. Hope Road, the 4-1 third choice, won the Grade 1 Ballerina Stakes at Saratoga last out and has earned triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures in three of her last four starts. Jose Ortiz rides Hope Road, who has won 5 of 11 races for owner-breeder Cicero Farms.
Richi, a Group 1 winner in Chile and Grade 2 winner in the U.S., is backing up from a series of routes. Baffert considered Richi for the BC Distaff. “I thought about it, but I think seven-eighths is a better distance.” Richi, the 5-1 fourth choice, will be ridden by Luis Saez.
Splendora is the third Baffert starter. A restricted stakes winner shortening from a route to a sprint, Splendora will be ridden by Flavien Prat and is likely to rally from behind. It’s a winning angle. All three BC Filly and Mare Sprints at Del Mar have been won by late-running longshots.
The next four entrants are double-digit outsiders – Vahva, Haulin Ice, Praying, and Zeitlos. Fee Blanche, a filly from Japan, has been scratched. As of Wednesday, the race had nine runners.
Vahva is the most accomplished, having won seven races and more than $2.1 million for trainer Cherie DeVaux. Vahva is 5, and her speed figures have tailed off. She earned an 89 Beyer her last two starts. She will be sold at auction next week.
Haulin Ice is speed, having wired the field in five of her last six starts, including the Grade 3 Princess Rooney. Her trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. won the 2024 Filly and Mare Sprint with late-running Princess Rooney winner Soul of an Angel. Haulin Ice is drawn directly outside Sweet Azteca and will keep the pace honest.
Praying and Zeitlos finished first and third last out in the Grade 2 TCA Stakes at Keeneland.
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