Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile: Baffert's lone starter will be Fed Biz

And then there was one. After recently losing Liaison to retirement and looking to a big 4-year-old season with recent Indiana Derby winner Power Broker, who “just needs to mature a little bit,” Bob Baffert will put all his eggs for the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile in the basket of Fed Biz.

Fed Biz will be coming off a 67-day layoff in the Dirt Mile, for which he earned a fees-paid berth by winning the Pat O’Brien Stakes in his most recent start. “Win and you’re in – that’s what we like,” Baffert said of the versatile Fed Biz, who rallied from ninth in the seven-furlong Pat O’Brien on Del Mar’s synthetic track and earlier this year led throughout the 1 1/16-mile San Fernando at Santa Anita, where he has won three of six starts overall.

As a 3-year-old, Fed Biz finished next to last in the Dirt Mile, but his trainer foresees a better result this time. “I’ve always been really high on him,” Baffert said, “and he’s finally maturing into the horse I thought he could be.”

Continuing a series of steady workouts at his home grounds, Fed Biz went a half-mile in 48.60 seconds Tuesday.

Interestingly enough, all six previous Dirt Mile winners were either turning back from longer routes or coming out of one-mile races. In addition to Fed Biz, others who will attempt to become the Dirt Mile’s first stretch-out winner include Goldencents and Centralinteligence.

Goldencents will boast the top last-out Beyer, a 109 earned for a fast-closing second in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship.

After lagging behind through that same race, the connections of Centralinteligence decided on the Dirt Mile for their 5-year-old gelding, who is guaranteed a spot by virtue of winning the Triple Bend Handicap.

“If you watch the replay [of his last race], you can see his head and tail were up in the air, and he was not a happy horse,” Bob Feld said in a letter to his Bongo Racing Stable partners. “Add to the fact that he didn’t like being pinned on the rail in the Malibu Stakes ... and I think it is very obvious to us now that an unhappy Centralinteligence does not run well. He needs to be in the clear, comfortable, and left alone for his best run.”

In his first workout since a bang-up second in the Kelso Invitational, Brujo de Olleros breezed a half-mile in a bullet 48.40 seconds over Fair Hill’s synthetic surface Oct. 11.

A number of contenders worked Saturday, including:

◗ Verrazano, who breezed five-eighths in 1:01.08, the fastest of 16 workouts at the distance on Belmont’s training track, while once again in company with Turf Sprint contender Capo Bastone.

◗ Golden Ticket, whose half-mile breeze in 48.80 seconds at Churchill Downs was his first work since a fourth in the Awesome Again Stakes.

◗ Easter Gift and Last Gunfighter, who went four furlongs together in 48.29 on the main track at Belmont.

◗ Broadway Empire, who went five-eighths in a bullet 59 seconds at Turf Paradise, his first work since wiring the Oklahoma Derby.