Santa Anita: Bourbon Bay drops out of Breeders' Cup Turf

Barbara D. Livingston

After watching Bourbon Bay work out Saturday, trainer Neil Drysdale announced the multiple stakes winner will not run in the Breeders' Cup Turf, but may be pointed to the Hollywood Turf Cup.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Bourbon Bay, the winner of six turf stakes at Santa Anita in his career, will miss Saturday’s $3 million Breeders’ Cup Turf, trainer Neil Drysdale said on Sunday.

“We’re going to skip it,” Drysdale said. “We didn’t think he worked satisfactorily.”

Saturday at Santa Anita, Bourbon Bay worked six furlongs on turf in 1:13.40. Drysdale said that as a substitute for the BC Turf that Bourbon Bay will be considered for the $250,000 Hollywood Turf Cup at Betfair Hollywood Park on Dec. 15.

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

Owned by David Heerensperger, Bourbon Bay has won 9 of 27 starts and $968,536. A 6-year-old gelding, Bourbon Bay has never started in a Breeders’ Cup race.

Earlier this year, Bourbon Bay won two Grade 2 turf races at Santa Anita – the San Luis Rey Stakes and San Juan Capistrano. In his last start, Bourbon Bay was a troubled eighth in the Grade 2 John Henry Turf Championship here on Sept. 30.

Bourbon Bay would have been a longshot in the BC Turf.  The race is led by Point of Entry, the winner of four graded stakes in Kentucky and New York this year.