Breeders Cup Clocker: Godolphin turf runners get blowout on main track

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KEENELAND
Thursday, Oct. 29
Weather: Clear
Temperature: 53 degrees
Track: Fast
Turf: Good

LEXINGTON, Ky. – All the players participating in this year’s Breeders’ Cup were pretty much in maintenance mode on a crisp but absolutely gorgeous fall morning Thursday at Keeneland. The cool weather had many of the horses really on their toes during their routine gallops throughout the course of the 4 1/2-hour training session that ended with a couple of major turf contenders blowing out a bit over the main course and several others getting in little breezes of their own a few minutes later on the grass.

Team Godolphin sent out Notable Speech (Mile) and El Cordobes (Turf) to breeze three-eighths over the turf Wednesday. El Cordobes looked razor sharp, with Notable Speech, the defending Mile champion, not so much over the somewhat boggy footing. So trainer Charlie Appleby decided to send the pair back out to do it over again Thursday over the main track, with Notable Speech extremely impressive blowing out down the lane before continuing with a ton of energy, completing another quarter-mile in 26 and change into and around the turn.

Avec Toi (Juvenile Turf) has been the only Breeders’ Cup entrant to train over the turf each of the last three days, doing a little more each successive morning, culminating with a neat little half-mile around the very wide dogs in 51.83 seconds, per Daily Racing Form. He was followed shortly thereafter by a trio of Andrew Balding-trained Breeders’ Cup hopefuls, with Blue Bolt (Filly and Mare Turf) easily the most impressive of the group, two-minute licking a half-mile before blowing out a quarter in 24.68 to the wire.

Aiden’s Army was a soldier short Thursday, with only nine of his 10 Breeders’ Cup entrants showing up with Great Barrier Reef (Juvenile Turf) seemingly missing. It was a rather vigorous training session, as expected, for the others who open galloped a full mile over the main track, pretty much standard fare for the team on Day 3 after being released from quarantine prior to Breeders’ Cup weekend.

As for this year’s Classic runners, all but one, Forever Young, who worked Wednesday, were out to train, including The Puma and Golden Tempo. Both had another good morning, The Puma strong as usual the second time by the finish line, Golden Tempo looking happy with his ears up striding out by the grandstand the second time around as well.

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It might sound like a broken record, but Magnitude had another good morning, getting strong as usual and giving his rider all he could handle the second time past the wire and into the clubhouse turn. Knightsbridge remains in beast mode and along with his stablemate Sovereignty continues to make favorable impressions on a daily basis.

T O Password had his mate T O Elvis (Sprint), who looked loaded Thursday, on his heels from start to finish, with both returning to the track for the first time after putting in works of their own Tuesday.

Other Breeders’ Cup morning all-stars over the past couple of weeks include Fully Subscribed, Coach Pope, Bless the Broken, and Kathynmarissa. Amusingly, Explora, Regaled, and Dark Saffron were among the many who also caught the eye Thursday morning.

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