Untapable figures to be favored in Breeders’ Cup Distaff

Last year’s appearance in the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita was not a particularly happy one for the favorite in Friday’s race of the day, the $2-million Distaff.

The Distaff will go off at 4:35 p.m., the ninth race on the card and the fourth Breeders’ Cup competition of the day. If the oddsmakers are correct, a field of 10 other female horses will be chasing the 5-2 betting choice, Untapable.

They will also be chasing the only female rider in the race, Rosie Napravnik, who was aboard Untapable last year and eased her home a quiet eighth in the Juvenile Fillies. It was a weird finish to a weird and scary race.

At the head of the home stretch in the Juvenile Fillies, Bob Baffert’s Secret Compass broke down, hurtling jockey John Velazquez to the ground, where he was hit by at least one other horse. Secret Compass had to be euthanized. Velazquez, bleeding internally, had a few life-threatening minutes before he was taken to a hospital and had his spleen removed.

In front of the mess and jockeying for position were She’s A Tiger and Ria Antonio. She’s A Tiger finished first, but her number was taken down for obstructing, and Ria Antonio, at 32-1, was awarded the victory.

Ria Antonio has raced eight times since, including the Kentucky Oaks and the Preakness, and her best finish has been three second-places. Calvin Borel rode her in the Preakness and finished 30 lengths back. She is in the Distaff field, but not respected by oddsmakers at 15-1.

In that same time span, Untapable and Napravnik had recovered and were steamrollering the competition, winning five of their next seven starts, including the Kentucky Oaks. Untapable finished out of the money only in the Haskell, a race against male horses won by Baffert’s Bayern.

Untapable is trained by the unflappable Steve Asmussen, who said about the big race Friday, “We are expecting another big one from her.”

This Distaff was to be a sort of last hurrah for the consensus best female thoroughbred since Zenyatta. But when Beholder, last year’s winner, came down with a fever and had to be scratched, it threw open the field.

Close Hatches finished second to Beholder in last year’s race and now has been placed just below Untapable at 3-1. Joel Rosario will ride Close Hatches and try to build on the momentum of four of five wins since last year’s Distaff.

Don’t Tell Sophia is close behind at 5-1. Don’t Tell Sophia has an 11-4-3 record in 22 starts and is the oldest horse in the race at 6.

Then, there are Iotapa and Belle Gallantey at 6-1.

Iotapa is ridden by Joe Talamo, for trainer John Sadler, and has won two of her last three races, finishing third to Beholder in Santa Anita’s Grade I Zenyatta on Sept. 27. She is the daughter of Preakness and Belmont winner Afleet Alex.

Belle Gallantey is a heavily raced 5-year-old, with 43 starts, a 9-12-7 showing from those and earnings of $1.1 million. Her style is to go to the front, which may be tough in a field with others of similar tendency. This will be her eighth race of 2014.

Victor Espinoza has Bob Baffert’s ride on Tiz Midnight at 10-1, and there is a Mandella in the field, despite the absence of Hall of Famer Richard Mandella, who trains Beholder.

Mandella’s son, Gary, will saddle Valiant Emilia, a Peruvian horse recently transferred to his barn. She has run 23 races, all in Peru, and has won five of her last seven outings.

bill.dwyre@latimes.com.

Twitter:@DwyreLATimes.