It may not be ideal to run three horses in the same race, but with limited options for New York-bred juvenile turf sprinters, trainer George Weaver finds himself with a trio of contenders for Friday's $175,000 Joseph A. Gimma Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Belmont Park.
Led by Classic winner Forever Young, as many as eight winners of Breeders' Cup races at Del Mar in 2025 are in play to double their pleasure when the two-day championship event is held on Oct. 30-31 at Keeneland.
The great Goldikova won the Breeders' Cup Mile in 2008, 2009, and 2010, while the great Wise Dan pulled a BC Mile double in 2012 and 2013. Two horses won the Mile five times in six years, but there has not been a repeat winner since. Notable Speech will be favored to end that drought Oct. 31 at Keeneland. In fact, the 5-year-old horse returned this year for a campaign with that goal as a primary objective.
Four weeks out and it remains an open question who runs in the $5 million Breeders' Cup Turf. Several could come from the Joe Hirsch, a key American prep, which was scheduled to be run Oct. 1.
In late summer, the colt How's Al Today needed less than two weeks to reach the top of the domestic 2-year-old turf division. At Kentucky Downs, How's Al Today won a $250,000 allowance race for sprinters on Aug. 29, and the $731,250 Kentucky Downs Juvenile Mile on Sept. 9, collecting a cool $583,088 from the two wins.
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The field for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies remains in flux and only features a handful of contenders, but the picture is expected to become clearer after three prep races this week at Keeneland, Belmont Park, and Santa Anita.
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Prince Almasty has been highly competitive at the nonwinners-of-two class for Ontario-sired allowance types and $40,000 claimers. He goes back to the turf in Friday's Woodbine feature at that level and should be prominent in the seven-furlong main course sprint.
U. S. S. Valor, the flashy second-time-out maiden winner at Saratoga, may be vying for an automatic Breeders' Cup Juvenile berth when he runs in Saturday's Grade 1 Champagne at Belmont Park, but his connections are far from booking their hotel rooms in Lexington.
Shisospicy has only run once since winning the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint last year, and it wasn't pretty. Trainer Jose D'Angelo is counting on light preparation and raw talent to make an improbable title defense off a six-month layoff, made more difficult in what should be an immensely deep field.
Canto Della Terra, who starts in an allowance race for fillies and mares at a mile on turf Friday at Santa Anita, had a disrupted summer season at Del Mar.
