BC Countdown - Juvenile: Scanlan has shot on goal with Toccet

John Scanlan can only wonder how good a horse Toccet can be if he ever truly put his mind to his business.

"He still hasn't got a clue," Scanlan said Wednesday from Maryland. "He's still the same little horse that wants to play. This is all a fun game to him."

Toccet made the game fun for Scanlan and owner Daniel Borislow earlier this month when he rallied up the rail in the Belmont Park stretch to win the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes by 1 1/2 lengths.

Next, Toccet will try to step it up when he meets the top juveniles in the country and others from Europe in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile on Oct. 26 at Arlington Park.

The configuration of Arlington precludes the running of races at 1 1/16 miles, so the Juvenile will be run at 1 1/8 miles this year. Scanlan believes that will help Toccet, who, despite the misspelling, is named after former National Hockey League star Rick Tocchet.

"When he ran in the Champagne he galloped out really really well,' Scanlan said. "I was really impressed with the way he finished and the way he took off after the wire. That tells me the mile and an eighth is up his alley. He has this amazing energy, he seems to never get tired."

Scanlan said Toccet is so playful in his stall, that he must be walked three or four times a day.

Scanlan has been training horses for 30 years, but said, "I've never had one so good, so I'm learning, too."

Toccet is the result of a mating between 1998 Breeders' Cup Classic winner Awesome Again and Cozzene's Angel, a stakes-placed mare whom Borislow purchased in foal. After Toccet was born, Borislow bred Cozzene's Angel to his stallion Aggressive Chief and sold her. After the Champagne, Borislow said he has been trying to buy her back for three months.

Borislow, the former president of a Pennsylvania telecommunications business, has changed the makeup of his racing operation. Instead of attending the yearling sales, he is dealing with strictly homebreds. He has 40 mares, and intends to keep only 15 to 20 racehorses a year. He will sell the rest.

Because of the decreased number of horses, Borislow will allow Scanlan to train for outside clients after the Breeders' Cup.

Scanlan planned to breeze Toccet at Laurel Park on Friday, and then put him on a private plane to Chicago Sunday afternoon.

- From Ireland, trainer Aidan O'Brien confirmed Wednesday that he pre-entered five horses for the Juvenile, but said Hold That Tiger and Van Nistelrooy are the ones most likely to run. O'Brien has those two plus Tomahawk, Marino Marini, and Ontario among 11 horses he nominated to Saturday's Group 1 Darley Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket.

- Sky Mesa, the probable Juvenile favorite, left Keeneland by van at 5 a.m. Wednesday and was scheduled to arrive in Chicago in mid-afternoon. On Monday, Sky Mesa worked five furlongs at Keeneland in 59.80 seconds "under wraps," trainer John Ward said. "I don't think you can get the animal any fitter."

- With Mark Guidry electing to ride Lone Star Sky, trainer Ronny Werner has named Pat Valenzuela on Most Feared, winner of the Arlington Futurity.

- additional reporting by Jay Privman