Breeders' Cup Classic shaping up as a rich mix

The Breeders’ Cup saves the best for last, with the $6 million Classic more often than not the highlight of the two-day extravaganza. This year’s race is shaping up as one of the most intriguing in years, with a healthy mix of horses from the East and West coasts, 3-year-olds facing elders, and even a high-class mare all under consideration for the race.

McKinzie, winner of the Whitney, and Code of Honor, who won the Travers, are among the marquee names in play for the Classic. But the list of major contenders runs quite deep, including the mare Elate, whose aptitude at 1 1/4 miles might propel her to the Classic instead of staying in her division for the shorter Distaff at 1 1/8 miles. Those horses, and several others with designs on the Classic, will be in action the next two weekends.

“It’s time to get ready for the playoffs,” said McKinzie’s trainer, Bob Baffert, who has won the Classic the last two times it was held at Santa Anita, with Arrogate in 2016 and Bayern in 2014.

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This year’s Breeders’ Cup, the 36th edition, will be run at Santa Anita on Nov. 1 and 2, and never before will the Breeders’ Cup, or Santa Anita, be under more scrutiny. A cluster of fatalities in the spring that caused a cessation of racing for more than three weeks at Santa Anita briefly left in doubt whether the Breeders’ Cup would be held there.

The Breeders’ Cup gave Santa Anita a vote of confidence in June by leaving the venue unchanged. This will be the 10th time Santa Anita has played host to the Breeders’ Cup, the fifth time in the last eight years, and the seventh time in the last 12.

There are 14 Breeders’ Cup races spread over the two days, with five – all for 2-year-olds – on Nov. 1, and then nine more on Nov. 2. Pre-entries are due Oct. 21 and are officially announced Oct. 23, along with each day’s race order. Final entries are due the morning of Oct. 28, and posts for all 14 races are drawn later that day.

The Classic is the richest of the 14 races, whose race purses total $28 million. It will be the final Breeders’ Cup race run on Nov. 2.

Who ends up in that field will be largely determined by races this weekend and next.

The final two Win and You’re In races for the Classic – the Awesome Again at Santa Anita and Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park – are Saturday. The final race of significance will be Oct. 6 at Keeneland, when Elate runs in the Spinster.

The Awesome Again will feature three horses who already own fees-paid berths to the Classic via the Win and You’re In program in Higher Power (winner of the Pacific Classic), McKinzie (Whitney), and Seeking the Soul (Stephen Foster). It is run at 1 1/8 miles, a furlong shorter than the 1 1/4-mile Classic, but has the benefit of being at Santa Anita, where the Classic will be run five weeks later.

The Jockey Club Gold Cup, like the Travers and the Classic a 1 1/4-mile race, will mark the first time Code of Honor faces older horses. Tacitus, runner-up in the Travers, is in the field, along with Woodward winner Preservationist and Vino Rosso, who won the Gold Cup at Santa Anita in May.

“We’ll see how this goes with the Gold Cup and see from there,” said Shug McGaughey, the trainer of Code of Honor. “He’s done surprisingly well since the Travers. All systems go.”

Trainer Todd Pletcher said he chose the Jockey Club Gold Cup over the Woodward at Saratoga earlier this month for Vino Rosso because “I feel better about a mile and a quarter than a mile and an eighth, and he’s 0 for 3 at Saratoga.”

“We wanted one race between the Whitney and the Breeders’ Cup Classic,” Pletcher said. “With the Jockey Club Gold Cup five weeks out, we decided we wanted that.”

Bill Mott, trainer of Elate and Tacitus, also has Yoshida in play for the Classic. He most recently was third in the Woodward.

“We’d probably come out there earlier if the track is deep and we need to get a work over it,” Mott said from New York.

Maximum Security, who won the Win and You’re In Haskell, missed the Pennsylvania Derby with what his veterinarian described as a “severe, acute bout of colic.” Although he has not been ruled out of the Classic, it is difficult to see him being trained into the Classic following that episode for what would be his first race in more than three months, hence the reason he’s not among those listed as potential starters.