ARACADIA, Calif. – Tamara has made only two starts, never run around two turns, and has not had a race in eight weeks. That’s a lot of questions to answer for a filly who is likely to go postward the shortest price of any horse competing in the 2023 Breeders’ Cup when she takes on a dozen rivals in Friday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. There are obviously plenty of reasons for bettors to believe Tamara could be a slam dunk to capture the Juvenile Fillies, not the least of which is the Beyer Speed Figure of 91 she earned for her 6 3/4-length victory in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante going seven furlongs Sept. 9. The number towers over the rest of the field, except for the 86 that Candied received for her victory in the Grade 1 Alcibiades and the big figures Brightwork earned in two graded stakes wins at Saratoga. In addition, Tamara’s breeding is impeccable, being the daughter of four-time Eclipse champion, Hall of Famer, and 2012 Juvenile Fillies winner Beholder. So too are her connections. She will be ridden by Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith for a fellow Hall of Famer, trainer Richard Mandella. She also has a bit of a home advantage over the majority of the field, having done all her training since the Del Mar Debutante at Santa Anita. It’s been hard for Mandella, who also trained Beholder, to contain his enthusiasm for Tamara. Immediately after the Debutante he said that watching her open up on the field “gave him chills.” He added how the performance reminded him so much of her mother. Mandella opted to skip the local prep for the Juvenile Fillies, the 1 1/16-mile Chandelier Stakes on Oct. 7 and just train Tamara into the Breeders’ Cup. She’s had five local works since the Debutante, the most recent a solo five furlongs in 1:00.92, per Daily Racing Form, with Smith in the irons last Saturday. :: Get Breeders' Cup Clocker Reports from Mike Welsch and the DRF Clocker Team when you purchase a BC VIP Package! “I don’t think the eight weeks off is any great concern,” Mandella said. “I was more concerned to over-race her if I’d gone in the other race [the Chandelier]. It might have been too much. She ran so big in the Debutante, I thought it might be a lot to ask her to do it again. Maybe I was right, maybe I was wrong.” Mandella does not seem in the least worried about stretching Tamara out from seven furlongs to 1 1/16 miles and trying two turns for the first time. Beholder had never been beyond seven-eighths of a mile or around two turns prior to her victory in the Juvenile Fillies here 11 years earlier. “It’s just one more turn, not much,” Mandella quipped. “Everything she does makes me think she can handle whatever circumstances you change.” Tamara stalked the pace before exploding to her easy win in the Debutante and figures to be forwardly placed on the stretch-out in the Juvenile Fillies. The field features plenty of early speed, including Chatalas, the gate-to-wire winner of the Chandelier, Brightwork, and several others. “I really haven’t thought about how the pace might play out,” Mandella admitted. Candied is the most highly regarded of a trio of fillies trainer Todd Pletcher will send out against the heavy favorite, along with Scalable and Life Talk. The Hall of Fame trainer admits he is excited about the prospects of all three going into the race. Like Tamara, Candied is lightly raced and perfect in two starts, although she is already proven at the distance, having rallied to a well-graded one-length victory in the 1 1/16-mile Alcibides at Keeneland. She will break from post 1 with regular rider Luis Saez aboard. “I was really impressed with her being able to go from a six-furlong maiden to a Grade 1 at a mile and one-sixteenth,” Pletcher said. “To me, the fillies to beat that day were also fillies that had quite a bit of seasoning and I thought that was a big race from her. “She’s come back to train well. I think drawing the rail is okay. I think she’s a filly that’s a little more confident when she’s outside, but hopefully Luis can work out the trip we’re looking for.” Scalable enters the race still a maiden after two tries but is coming off a very promising second-place finish behind Chatalas in the Chandelier. She rallied from near the rear of the field along the rail to finish 1 1/2 lengths behind the winner. “It was also asking a lot of her to do what she did, come out of a maiden race that I thought was better than maybe it looked on paper,” Pletcher said. “Putting her in the Chandelier was an aggressive move, but she ran really well, she kept closing, she finished up good. “That experience and a race over the track should move her forward for this one.” Life Talk is coming off a third-place finish behind Just F Y I over a sloppy track in the Grade 1 Frizette. “I thought her last breeze in particular was very good, we’ve had a better training schedule leading into this race, and we should get a fast track here, which I believe she’ll appreciate getting back on,” Pletcher said. “I think she’ll run a much improved race.” :: Breeders' Cup Shop: DRF Past Performances available now Just F Y I is another lightly raced and still undefeated filly. She won her maiden going six furlongs debuting at Saratoga before dominating the Frizette over the wet track by 3 3/4 lengths in her only other start. “I wouldn’t have thought the wet track would have been a big advantage to her since she’s a big leggy filly with kind of a big flatter foot,” trainer Bill Mott said. “I told the owner if she didn’t show up that day we wouldn’t know whether we were overmatched or it was just the racetrack. Well she showed up and ran good in the slop. “She doesn’t have the kind of experience some of these other horses have going around two turns, but I don’t think it should be an issue.” Chatalas proved no match for Tamara at seven furlongs in the Debutante before flattering that race with her very game victory in the Chandelier, setting a contested pace from the outset before proving clearly best in her two-turn bow. – additional reporting by Steve Andersen :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.