Breeders' Cup: Boat Trip, Jeranimo likely to go in Turf Sprint

ARCADIA, Calif. – Trainer Mike Pender’s two Breeders’ Cup pre-entrants, Boat Trip and Jeranimo, are cross-entered in the Mile and the Turf Sprint, and though Pender said no decision has been made, it seems clear that he and both horses’ owners are leaning toward the Turf Sprint.

“In all likelihood, you’re going to see both of them wind up in the [Turf] Sprint,” Pender said.

That choice seems fairly obvious with Boat Trip, a 4-year-old with 12 career starts who might not yet have found his ceiling. Boat Trip has a win over one mile, but it came against California-breds, and he was beaten just a nose with a less-than-ideal trip in the local Turf Sprint prep, the Sept. 27 Eddie D Stakes.

Jeranimo, if he indeed goes in the shorter race, would be making his first sprint start since October 2010. The 7-year-old Jeranimo ran well in several sprints over synthetic surfaces in 2009 and 2010, and though his most recent victory came in the 1 1/8-mile Eddie Read Stakes at Del Mar in July, Jeranimo’s best Breeders’ Cup chance might come in a race at an imperfect distance but against softer competition than he’d face in the Mile.

Jeranimo made his Breeders’ Cup debut in the 2012 Mile and finished sixth, beaten a little more than four lengths.

“I always said the 6 1/2 [furlongs] down the hill here plays more like a mile than a sprint,” Pender said. “You can’t really make a sprinter a route horse, but sometimes you can make a route horse a sprinter.”