It worked in the spring, and he is hoping it will work now. While many of the entrants in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic are already on the grounds at Churchill Downs, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer has kept Blind Luck in California, where she is completing her preparation at Hollywood Park. Hollendorfer did the same thing in the spring, shipping Blind Luck to Churchill Downs just days before the Kentucky Oaks. She won that race by a nose, one of three Grade 1 victories this year that have put Blind Luck atop the 3-year-old filly division.

With 18 horses pre-entered, the Turf Sprint is one of six Breeders’ Cup races that oversubscribed. A maximum of 14 can start; two also-eligibles will be drawn and appear on the program in case of any late scratches.

Four European 2-year-olds – led by Aidan O’Brien-trained Master of Hounds, the third-place finisher in the Group 1 Racing Trophy on Oct. 23 at Doncaster – were among seven horses chosen by the Breeders’ Cup Selection Committee among 19 pre-entries for the $1 million Juvenile Turf.

Crown of Thorns, second in four straight Grade 1 races, including last year’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint, and Here Comes Ben, winner of four straight, including the Grade 1 Forego most recently, were the two top horses pre-entered for the $1 million Dirt Mile.

This Dirt Mile will be the first in the event’s brief history actually to be run at one mile on dirt. It will also be the first Dirt Mile run around one turn.

Led by the sensational mares Zenyatta and Goldikova, both of whom will be seeking unprecedented third victories in the Breeders’ Cup, a total of 184 horses were announced on Wednesday as the pre-entries for the 27th Breeders’ Cup, a 14-race, $25.5 million extravaganza to be held Nov. 5-6 at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.

Typically, the trainer of a horse must talk an owner out of aiming too high. But in the case of The Usual Q. T., it was up to trainer Jim Cassidy to plead the case for the Breeders’ Cup Mile to the partnership that owns the West Coast’s most proven grass miler. Cassidy’s argument won out, and The Usual Q. T. was among the 11 pre-entries in the $2 million Mile.

With division leader Majesticperfection retired and both Here Comes Ben and Crown of Thorns opting for the Dirt Mile, the $2 million Sprint is coming up one of the most wide-open races on next Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup card.

The six-furlong Sprint lured just a dozen pre-entries, topped by Girolamo, winner of the Grade 1 Vosburgh earlier this month, and Big Drama, who finished second behind Majesticperfection and Here Comes Ben in the Grade 1 A.G. Vanderbilt Handicap and Forego in his last two starts.

There are only five Grade 1 races in North America for 2-year-olds leading up to the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. This year, those races were all won by different horses. And in something of a rarity, all five were among the 11 horses pre-entered for the Juvenile to be run Nov. 6 at Churchill Downs.

With 22 pre-entries, easily the most of any of the 14 Breeders' Cup races this year, there won't be many more wide-open BC events than the $1 million Filly and Mare Sprint. The race surely will net a full gate of 14, with the first also-eligible, Rinterval, probably cracking the lineup because Unrivaled Belle is far more likely to opt out in favor of the BC Ladies' Classic.

Eight are likely to go in a Breeders’ Cup Turf that looks very much like a rematch between Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Workforce and Arc fourth Behkabad. In terms of class and the ability to stay 1 1/2 miles, there is nothing else that appears capable of winning the race, on paper at least.