LEXINGTON, Ky. – The means were much different, but the results the same. Just like four Fridays beforehand, Wonder Wheel won a Grade 1 race at Keeneland, albeit on a much bigger stage this time. Rallying from well off the pace – in stark contrast to her wire-to-wire victory in the Oct. 7 Alcibiades – Wonder Wheel drew clear in the final furlong for an emphatic three-length victory in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. Sent away the 6-1 fourth choice in a field of 13 2-year-old fillies, Wonder Wheel returned $15 after finishing 1 1/16 miles in 1:44.90 over a fast track. Wonder Wheel earned an 83 Beyer Speed Figure, below the 92 par for the Juvenile Fillies. :: BREEDERS’ CUP 2022: See DRF’s special section with top contenders, odds, comments, news, and more for each division Ridden by Tyler Gaffalione, Wonder Wheel didn’t break nearly as quickly as in the Alcibiades and found herself 11th all the way down the backstretch, from where Gaffalione continued to calmly keep her in hand until letting her roll midway through the final turn. From there, Wonder Wheel zipped past most of the field while kept nearest the rail, suddenly producing herself from behind Leave No Trace while angling out for the drive. It was all over after that, with Gaffalione mostly waving his whip at his mount down the lane. “Things didn’t really go as planned,” said Gaffalione. “We’d wanted to be more forwardly placed. But she settled nicely going down the backside and was in a good rhythm, and she did everything on her own after that.” “When we went to the first turn, I was like, ‘Oh boy, this is not good,’” said winning trainer Mark Casse. Leave No Trace, a 25-1 shot who took over for front-running Grand Love late in the far turn after attending all the pace, continued resolutely to hold second, a length before a belated run from Raging Sea, the 6-1 fifth choice. Sabra Tuff (62-1) was along to get fourth by a head in a three-way photo over You’re My Girl and Grand Love. The two favorites brought up the rear, a nose apart: Chocolate Gelato, the 9-2 second choice off her victory in the Grade 1 Frizette, was 12th, just ahead of Chop Chop, the 2-1 favorite off a just-miss runner-up effort behind Wonder Wheel in the Alcibiades. The BC victory surely clinched a divisional championship for Wonder Wheel, a dark bay Into Mischief owned by the D.J. Stable of Leonard Green and family. The Greens also owned Jaywalk, the BC Juvenile Fillies winner and Eclipse Award champion of 2018. “It’s an incredible feeling,” said Jon Green, who manages the stable for the family. Casse, a member of both the U.S. and Canadian Racing Halls of Fame, also was elated with how things turned out for his latest stable star. “I thought her race in the Alcibiades was good, but I knew she would have to be even better,” said Casse, who was winning a BC event for the sixth time. “I told Tyler before we threw him up, I said, ‘You're sitting on a better horse today than you were a month ago.’ This summer I was saying she’s my next Classic Empire,” with whom Casse won the 2016 BC Juvenile and a divisional title. For Gaffalione, a 28-year-old Florida native who has become the perennial leading jockey at major meets in Kentucky, the win was an emotional one. He entered the race with an 0-for-35 record in Breeders’ Cups, the longest span without a win in event history. After passing under the wire a winner, he gave numerous enthusiastic waves of his whip while screaming in joy in the crowd’s direction. “It means the world to me,” said Gaffalione, who in 2019 notched his lone win in a Triple Crown event when booting home War of Will in the Preakness for Casse. Casse said Wonder Wheel will soon head back for a brief rest at his training center in Ocala, Fla., where she’ll eventually ease back into training to prepare for the May 5 Kentucky Oaks, for which she earned 20 qualifying points with her BC win. :: DRF Bets members get FREE DRF Past Performances - Formulator or Classic. Join now! Wonder Wheel, bred in Kentucky by Three Chimneys Farm and Clearsky Farms, was purchased by the Greens for $275,000 at the 2021 Keeneland September Yearling Sales. She now has won four of five starts, with a runner-up finish behind Leave No Trace in the Grade 1 Spinaway at Saratoga in early September being sandwiched around triumphs in the July 4 Debutante at Churchill Downs and the Alcibiades. The $2 exacta (5-13) paid $302.88, the $1 trifecta (5-13-14) returned $935.30, and the 10-cent superfecta (5-13-14-4) was worth $1,583.02. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.