No Nay Never, a graded or group stakes winner in three countries, will be retired after his scheduled start in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint on Nov. 1 at Santa Anita to stand at Coolmore Stud in Ireland.
While trainer Todd Pletcher will run two undefeated Grade 1 winners in Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita, his other undefeated Grade 1-winning juvenile colt is close to returning to his barn.
On the same day trainer Charlie LoPresti had hoped to run two-time Horse of the Year Wise Dan in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, before a cannon bone injury sent the horse to the sidelines, he will be leading over Wise Dan’s little half-sister, Enchanting Lisa, to run in the Grade 2, $200,000 Chilukki Stakes Saturday at Churchill Downs.
Trainers Mark Casse, Christophe Clement, Ken McPeek, John Sadler, and Wesley Ward have won a lot of races in their careers. Oddly enough, none of the quintet has won a Breeders’ Cup race.
Sweet Reason will be equipped with a transparent green bubble over her right eye Saturday in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint because of an injury she incurred in her last race, the Sept. 20 Cotillion at Parx.
Seven 3-year-olds will meet in the $200,000 Discovery Handicap at Aqueduct on Saturday, but the focus will be on Bay of Plenty and Three Alarm Fire, two lightly raced but obviously talented runners.
“So, what are you planning to do? You going back?” The questions, posed to him by his wife, Leona, caught John Velazquez by surprise. They came last November, a few weeks after Velazquez was seriously injured in a spill at Santa Anita early on Breeders’ Cup Saturday. Among other issues, Velazquez had to undergo surgery to remove his spleen.
Velvet Mesquite won her stakes debut in the California Distaff Handicap on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita on Oct. 11. By the next morning, trainer Blake Heap began plotting a schedule to have the massive 4-year-old filly ready for Saturday’s $100,000 Sen. Ken Maddy Stakes over the same hillside turf course.
This year’s European contingent on Saturday at the Breeders' Cup is long, and it is strong. Let’s take a look, race by race, listed in post position order, at the European invasion.
The undefeated Shared Belief is going to be the clear-cut favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, and even his detractors (Are there any? How could there be?) would probably concede that it is impossible to rule him out of the number, whether you are engaging in horizontal or vertical wagers.
