The fields for the 14 races that comprise the Breeders’ Cup World Championships really begin to come into focus in summer and fall and this regular feature will offer a snapshot profile of one of the previous weekend’s standout stars.

My tentative plan for this week was to pick a 2-year-old to profile, but Idiomatic’s dominant win Sunday at Keeneland in the $600,000 Juddmonte Spinster Stakes led to a last-minute adjustment. She simply overpowered the opposition, including 2022 champion 3-year-old filly Nest, in a 4 ¼-length romp under Florent Geroux that earned her an expenses-paid starting berth in the $2 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff and also cemented her credentials as the most likely favorite for the 1 1/8-mile race.

Now in her second season of racing after making her career debut in April 2022 on the all-weather main track at Turfway Park, Idiomatic has amassed an impressive résumé with eight wins, including in four graded stakes, from 11 starts.

She has never been worse than third and now is a winner of four consecutive races, including the $500,000 Personal Ensign Stakes by four lengths at Saratoga Race Course in August and Sunday’s runaway in the Juddmonte Spinster for back-to-back Grade 1 wins.

Idiomatic has wins on both fast and sloppy dirt main tracks as well as four on all-weather surfaces. She has won stalking and pressing the pace, but she has really emerged this year when storming right to the front and daring her opponents to come and get her. In the Personal Ensign and Spinster, her challengers had no shot.

Idiomatic has won at distances ranging from a mile to 1 ¼ miles this year. She has posted a string of 113-112-109-108 Equibase Speed Figures during her four-race winning streak and her Beyer Speed Figures over the same stretch are 101-100-102-99. That demonstrates Idiomatic’s consistency.

There are very few, if any, flaws when considering this strapping 17.2 hands, 4-year-old filly by two-time Horse of the Year Curlin out of a stakes-winning full-sister (same dam [mother], same sire [father]) to 2014 champion older female Close Hatches, also owned and bred by Juddmonte Farms.

“She’s a tremendous talent, very physical, really. When I was saddling her in the paddock, I was, like, ‘Wow, she’s the biggest horse I’ve ever trained.’ She’s a monster,” trainer Brad Cox said after the Spinster. “She has a tremendous stride and covers so much ground. She’s really a freak – I mean, she really is a tremendous talent, and we’re very fortunate to have her.”

Jockey Geroux and trainer Cox teamed to win the Breeders’ Cup Distaff in 2018 and 2020 with Monomoy Girl and there are plenty of good reasons to think they are poised to partner for a third in 2023.

• The average winning Equibase Speed Figure over the last 10 years in the Distaff has been 113.4 with an average winning Beyer figure of 101.4. Essentially, Idiomatic’s last four races would be good enough, on paper, to win quite a few editions of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. If she improves, Idiomatic would be almost unbeatable.
• This year’s 3-year-old filly division does not look nearly as strong as year’s past, when sophomore standouts like Beholder (2013), Untapable (2014), and Monomoy Girl (2018) defeated older females in the Distaff. Nest was widely considered the leading Distaff contender before Idiomatic swamped her in back-to-back starts. Simply put, the division is lacking a bit in terms of depth and quality.
• While stalkers and closers have been very effective in recent years in the Distaff, speed horses have been very strong when the event was held on dirt at Santa Anita. Removing the two editions held on an all-weather surface in 2008 and 2009, four of the eight Distaffs at Santa Anita Park were won in front-running style and three of the other four were won by Beholder (twice) and Untapable, both of whom had tremendous tactical speed.
• Fifteen of the last 17 Distaff winners were proven Garde 1 winners, like Idiomatic. Likewise, eight of the last 13 Distaff winners competed at Saratoga Race Course during the summer of their Breeders’ Cup-winning season, and Malathaat last year followed the Personal Ensign-Spinster path to Distaff glory.

Idiomatic could be one of the heaviest favorites among the 14 Breeders’ Cup races and she is in terrific position to give Cox and Geroux their third win in the race in the last six years.