2021 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile: Silver State works half-mile
DEL MAR, Calif. – Silver State is named for Nevada, has raced this year in Arkansas, New York, and Pennsylvania, and on Saturday at Del Mar will attempt to find gold in California in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, a race for which he turned in his final workout on Sunday morning.
Silver State went a half-mile at Del Mar in 48.60 seconds, his first work here and his fourth since arriving in California following a second-place finish in the Parx Dirt Mile last time out.
His biggest win this year came in the Met Mile at Belmont Park. He won three straight two-turn races at Oaklawn earlier this year, including the Oaklawn Handicap.
Final entries for the Dirt Mile were due Monday morning, and posts were to be drawn Monday afternoon. Eleven were pre-entered, but only nine were expected to enter the race, with C Z Rocket (Sprint) and Stilleto Boy (Classic) opting for races that had been designated as their first preference at the pre-entry stage.
The Dirt Mile field was expected to be Eight Rings (Juan Hernandez the rider), Ginobili (Drayden Van Dyke), Jasper Prince (Yuichi Fukunaga), Life Is Good (Irad Ortiz Jr.), Mind Control (John Velazquez), Pingxiang (Yuga Kawada), Restrainedvengence (Edwin Maldonado), Silver State (Ricardo Santana Jr.), and Snapper Sinclair (Joel Rosario).