Beer Can Man, excluded from Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint, goes to Plan B
DEL MAR, Calif. – The turf sprinters Beer Can Man, Chaos Theory, Commander and The Critical Way were members of a dubious club at Del Mar this week.
They were excluded from the list of 12 runners selected for the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint on Saturday and left on an also-eligible list.
The quartet has a second chance for a start this weekend as part of a field of six in an allowance race at five furlongs on turf in Sunday’s third race.
Beer Can Man, trained by Mark Glatt, was second in the Grade 3 Turf Monster Stakes at Parx Racing in September, a performance Glatt hoped would be enough to sway a Breeders’ Cup committee into selecting the 3-year-old colt for the BC Turf Sprint.
The new goal is the 2022 BC Turf Sprint at Keeneland next November.
“This is the next-best option in the short-term,” Glatt said of Sunday’s allowance race. “He’s ready to run, so it makes sense.
“He could be in next year’s Breeders’ Cup. We have to get as many points as we can so we can get a spot next time. I wished we would have gotten a spot this time.”
Beer Can Man, owned by the Little Red Feather Racing partnership, Madaket Stables and Sterling Stables, is unbeaten in two starts on turf at Del Mar – winning the Grade 3 Cecil B. DeMille Stakes at a mile here last November and a five-furlong allowance race on Aug. 13.
Chaos Theory and Commander ran on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita on the first weekend of October. Chaos Theory was third in the Grade 3 Eddie D Stakes, a day before Commander won an allowance race by two lengths.
The Critical Way has finished first in three consecutive sprint stakes on turf at Monmouth Park and Parx Racing since mid-June, but was disqualified from the first of those wins for a medication violation.
The field includes the Emerald Downs stakes winner Papa’s Golden Boy, who will have his turf debut in his 17th start, and Into the Sunrise, a stakes winner at Ellis Park in July for trainer Wesley Ward.