Breeders' Cup Juvenile: He's Had Enough might make dirt debut on big stage

Michael Amoruso

Champagne winner Shanghai Bobby will try to become the first East Coast-based horse to win the Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita.

After winning the Kentucky Derby six months ago with I’ll Have Another, owner Paul Reddam and trainer Doug O’Neill may try to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile with He’s Had Enough.

[BREEDERS' CUP 2012: Race-by-race coverage, video, early odds]

Reddam and O’Neill pre-entered both He’s Had Enough and Know More for the $2 million Juvenile, which attracted only 10 horses, and for the $1 million Juvenile Turf, which oversubscribed. The pre-entries were announced Wednesday.

In a surprise move, Reddam designated the Juvenile as first preference for He’s Had Enough while making the Juvenile Turf first preference for Know More, runner-up in the Grade 1 FrontRunner Stakes on the dirt at Santa Anita.

Know More is in the body of the Juvenile Turf, while He’s Had Enough is two-deep on the preference list.

Know More has never raced on turf, though in August he won the Grade 2 Best Pal as a first-time starter over Del Mar’s synthetic surface.

Meanwhile, He’s Had Enough, who won his debut in a maiden race at Del Mar, has never raced on dirt.

“Know More, he seems to have turf action,” said Reddam, who won the 2004 Juvenile with 28-1 shot Wilko, who was making his dirt debut after racing on turf in England. “The other horse is a longshot, but we believe he’s got dirt action.”

[BREEDERS' CUP 2012: Pre-entered fields with odds and comments]

He’s Had Enough, a son of Tapit, had a brutal trip finishing 11th in the Breeders’ Futurity over Keeneland’s synthetic surface. He broke slowly, was steadied down the backside, and got banged around between horses at the quarter pole.

“We don’t know how good this horse is,” Reddam said. “The jock said he never had a shot to run. He trains like he has got ability, but mentally I’m not sure the light bulb has gone on yet.”

Reddam said Mario Gutierrez, who rode I’ll Have Another to victory in the Derby and Preakness, will ride He’s Had Enough.

While He’s Had Enough and I’ll Have Another are not related, Reddam did say that the former was named as a play on words off the latter.

Reddam was leaning toward running Know More in the Juvenile Turf, but the fact the Juvenile came up with just 10 pre-entrants may make him reconsider.

“To run both of them in there may not be the stupidest idea ever,” Reddam said.

The Juvenile field is topped by Shanghai Bobby, undefeated in four starts including the Grade 1 Champagne. His challenge is trying to become the first East Coast-based horse to win a Juvenile at Santa Anita. In four of the previous five Juveniles held at Santa Anita, the winner was based in California. The European-based Vale of York upset the 2009 edition.

“We’ve certainly proven you can ship east to west with success,” said Pletcher, who won the Grade 1 Zenyatta Stakes earlier this meet with Love and Pride.

Power Broker, who won the FrontRunner by 6 1/2 lengths as a maiden, will likely be second choice behind Shanghai Bobby in the Juvenile. He is trained by Bob Baffert, who won the 2008 Juvenile at Santa Anita with Midshipman and the 2002 Juvenile at Arlington with Vindication.

Baffert also will send out maiden winner Title Contender in the Juvenile. Both horses are owned by Gary and Mary West.

Like O’Neill and Baffert, California-based trainer John Sadler has pre-entered two horses in the Juvenile: Capo Bastone, who finished third in the FrontRunner, and Monument, who won the California Cup Juvenile on Oct. 13.

Completing the list of pre-entrants are Fortify, second in the Hopeful and third in the Champagne; Speak Logistics, winner of the In Reality division of the Florida Stallion Stakes; and Dynamic Sky, runner-up in the Breeders’ Futurity.

This year, the anti-bleeding medication Lasix will be banned from use in Breeders’ Cup races restricted to 2-year-olds. Nine of the 10 pre-entrants have made all their starts on Lasix. Only Fortify has not raced on Lasix.