Breeders' Cup Clocker: Asmussen works five contenders

KEENELAND
Weather: Clear
Track: Fast
Temp: 56

LEXINGTON, KY. - Trainer Todd Pletcher dominated the Breeders’ Cup worktab on Friday at Keeneland while colleagues Doug O’Neill and Chad Brown did likewise the following morning. Sunday was Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen’s turn to take the spotlight and he sent out five of seven potential Breeders’ Cup runners to make the clocker tab. It was a star-studded lineup topped by Epicenter, who is among the more fancied of those hoping to upset the odds on Flightline in the Classic.

It was a picture-perfect fall morning at Keeneland, with temperatures in the mid-50s when the track opened at 5:30 a.m., not long after which the Asmussen parade began, with four Breeders’ Cup hopefuls breezing in four separate sets in the dark over the fast main track.

ECHO ZULU was the first to go, zipping five furlongs from the half in 23.78, 46.99, 59.28 alongside promising 3-year-old filly Marsalis, who stuck right with her more-accomplished mate until the latter ultimately edged a couple of lengths clear, galloping out three-quarters in a sparkling 1:12.88 while giving every indication she could prove a major player in what appears to be a very wide-open Filly and Mare Sprint.

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SOCIETY was next up, breezing a conventional five furlongs in 1:00.03 inside Ten Gauge, completing her final quarter in 24.96 while going easily inside her pressured partner before pulling away on the gallop out after six furlongs in 1:13.67, with Florent Geroux in the irons. The vastly improved 3-year-old filly appears to be maintaining that good form but is in a tough, loaded Distaff field.

Geroux came right back in the next set aboard GRAND LOVE who breezed five-eighths in 1:00.44 while hard held to finish inside a pressured Tres Soles before pulling nearly five lengths clear going out six panels in 1:14.49. The speedy but lightly raced youngster will likely be among the outsiders in the Juvenile Fillies.

CLAIRIERE is another contender in the deep Distaff. She had Joel Rosario aboard working five furlongs in 1:01.06, shading :24 for the final quarter under some light encouragement while readily drawing away from her overmatched workmate. Clairiere looked good, continuing out solo into around the turn in 1:13.99 up 1:27.67 for seven furlongs.

EPICENTER was among the first workers over a freshly renovated track at 7:30 a.m. while in company with Uncle Berley, looked very sharp as usual covering five furlongs in 1:00.25, finishing full of run under Rosario in 23.49 down the lane before sustaining that momentum and going out six panels in 1:13.18, not easing up until completing a full mile in 1:40.75. Epicenter will need to be every bit as sharp facing the yeoman task of taking on Flightline in the main event a week from Saturday.

Trainer Wesley Ward joined the Breeders’ Cup workout party shortly after the second break, sending out the Sprint-bound duo of KIMARI (also still possible for the Filly and Mare Sprint) and NAKATOMI, the pair just walking away from the five-furlong marker in :14 and continuing at a similarly easy pace to complete the distance in 1:03.20 and 1:03.50 respectively in what amounted to a maintenance-like leg-stretcher for the two speedsters.

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