Led by Breeders’ Cup Challenge Win and You’re In race winners Catch a Glimpse and Harmonize, a field of 14, plus an also-eligible, were drawn Monday afternoon for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Keeneland on Friday.
The total all-sources live mutuel handle and daily average for the 2015 meet at Hastings Racecourse were both up by 14.7 percent compared to 2014.
The Keeneland turf course could easily be rated soft for the Breeders’ Cup grass races Friday and Saturday if mid-week rain falls as forecast, according to Keeneland track superintendent Javier Barajas
Several prominent horses landed potentially tricky posts when 11 of the 13 Breeders’ Cup races to be run Friday and Saturday at Keeneland were drawn early Monday afternoon, including Karakontie, who will again have to overcome an outside draw if he is to repeat in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, and Nyquist, who will have to start from post 13 in a bid to remain undefeated in the Juvenile.
With American Pharoah completing all his serious training for the Breeders’ Cup Classic in California, BEHOLDER has commanded the most attention at Keeneland since her arrival from the West Coast a week ago. Her much-anticipated final work for the Classic came here Monday, and the popular filly did not disappoint her legion of fans while headlining a list of 15 potential Breeders’ Cup starters who breezed over both the dirt and turf throughout the course of the morning.
A murky picture for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf got even murkier on Monday, as the likely favorites landed the two outside posts in an overflow field.
Piggybacking on the Breeders’ Cup, Belmont Park will run both the Grade 3, $200,000 Turnback the Alarm and the $100,000 Awad on Friday.
With the sport now splintered in a certain way that allows horses to remain local for much of the year and only get together on rare occasions, like the Breeders Crown, often the viewer is left to wonder if the true character of a horse or horses have been revealed.
Likely favorite Cavorting was assigned the far outside post in a full gate of 14 when entries were drawn Monday at Keeneland for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.
Hot City Girl and Weekend Express were both entered and scratched from stakes at Belmont Park last weekend. They return Thursday in separate second-level optional-claiming races.
