Breeders' Cup Juvenile: Marooned favorites vulnerable; Cleburne scratch leaves field of 13
ARCADIA, Calif. - Two of the biggest upsets in the history of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile occurred at Santa Anita, where on Saturday the 30th renewal of the race will be run, the eighth time for a purse of $2 million.
One of those upsets was recorded by Action This Day, a horse owned by B. Wayne Hughes’s Spendthrift Farm who in 1993 came out of a maiden race four weeks earlier to upset the Juvenile at odds of 26-1.
When Grade 1 winners Havana and Strong Mandate drew the extreme outside post positions in a full field of 14 for Saturday’s Juvenile, the stage was set for another shocking result.
The field for the Juvenile was reduced to 13 on Thursday when Cleburne, undefeated winner of the Grade 3 Iroquois Stakes, was found to have a bucked left shin and will be scratched, according to trainer Dale Romans.
Though Romans won’t have Cleburne to run, he could still very well win the Juvenile with Medal Count, who like longshot winner Action This Day is owned by Spendthrift Farm.
On paper, Medal Count doesn’t compare to the likes of Havana, the Champagne, winner, Strong Mandate the Hopeful winner, or even Tap It Rich, an eye-catching maiden winner at Santa Anita on Oct. 12.
[BREEDERS’ CUP 2013: Fields with DRF odds and comments]
Medal Count, a son of Dynaformer, won his debut in an off-the-turf, two-turn mile race at Ellis Park on Sept. 1. In that race, he was in traffic for most of the trip before getting out late and strode away impressively to win by 6 1/4 lengths. He again encountered traffic when fifth, beaten only 2 1/4 lengths in the Bourbon Stakes, a race that was rained off the turf and run over Keeneland’s synthetic surface.
“He got in so much trouble in the race I was kind of down on him and I thought I might not do it,” Dale Romans, the trainer of Medal Count said about running in the Juvenile. “I talked to Mr. Hughes about it and he said ‘If you still like him as much as you did before don’t let that one Polytrack race keep us from going.’ ”
Though Romans had shipped his other three Breeders’ Cup horses to Santa Anita early, he kept Medal Count behind. Romans liked what he saw in a weekend workout at Churchill and opted to ship to California on Tuesday.
“I still think he’s a very good horse and he deserves to run with these kind,” said Romans, who has Robby Albarado to ride from post 11.
Havana, the 5-2 morning-line favorite, will try to give trainer Todd Pletcher his third victory in this race in four years. He will most likely have to do it on the front end, breaking from post 12.
“We’re not looking to take him back or dirt school him or anything like that,” Pletcher said even before posts were drawn. “We’re going to let him run his race. If someone is faster than him, he’s shown that he can tolerate that.”
Pletcher also sends out We Miss Artie, a son of 2005 Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Artie Schiller, who won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity on synthetic but who has trained extremely well on the dirt, according to Pletcher.
Strong Mandate won the Grade 1 Hopeful by 9 3/4 lengths in the slop before finishing seventh in the Grade 1 Champagne at Belmont on Oct. 5. He was assigned post 14 for the Juvenile, a post from which only Arazi won in five runnings of the Juvenile with 14 starters - but with the scratch of Cleburne he moves to post 13, which is 0 for 15 in the Juvenile. Strong Mandate is getting a rider switch to Joel Rosario.
“I don’t like where I’m at frankly,” said Lukas, who has won five Juveniles. “He’s got good speed and he’s a good gate horse as a rule. I think the big plus in the deal is Rosario, who is very, very seasoned on this racetrack.”
Trainer Bob Baffert has won the Juvenile twice, but here in 2009 his Lookin At Lucky, who broke from post 13, was upset by 30-1 shot Vale of York.
Baffert has the duo of maiden winners Tap It Rich and New Year’s Day. Tap It Rich overcame a slow start and a wide trip to win his debut just three weeks ago here.
“He’s still pretty green,” Baffert said. “He has a lot of raw talent. This horse is pretty exciting because of the way he won but he’s going to have to break well. Mentally he’s just not there yet.”
New Year’s Day won a two-turn mile maiden race at Del Mar on Aug. 31, but hasn’t run since. He had to skip the Grade 1 FrontRunner Stakes due to a temperature. Baffert has worked him hard and thinks he has him ready to run a big race.
Bond Holder won the Grade 1 FrontRunner Stakes as a maiden for trainer Doug O’Neill, who will also send out Rum Point, fifth in the Breeders’ Futurity last out.
Diamond Bachelor, a stakes winner on turf makes his dirt debut in the Juvenile. Smarty’s Echo, second in the Breeders’ Futurity, Dance With Fate, second in the FrontRunner and Del Mar Futurity, Mexikoma, a 14-length winner at Delaware, and Conquest Titan, fifth in the Breeders’ Futurity complete the field.