Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint: Super Ninety Nine scratched

ARCADIA, Calif. – Super Ninety Nine, a major contender in the first of 15 Breeders’ Cup races this weekend at Santa Anita, the BC Juvenile Sprint, was scratched from the six-furlong race Friday morning after being cast in his stall and suffering scrapes, according to trainer Bob Baffert.

Baffert tweeted that Super Ninety Nine, owned by the Tanma Corporation of Susan Chu, would be okay in several days, but that the scrapes were severe enough to necessitate a scratch.

“Bummer,” Baffert said.

The defection left a field of just six 2-year-olds in the $500,000 BC Juvenile Sprint, the fourth of 10 Friday races and the first of six Friday BC events.

Super Ninety Nine, a Pulpit colt, was the second choice at 5-2 in the race when coming off an impressive victory in his only start, a maiden special weight race early last month at Santa Anita. The morning line was to be revised, with Merit Man, the original 8-5 favorite, sure to be even lower on the new line.

Ten 2-year-olds were original pre-entries to the Juvenile Sprint, but two other major contenders, Beholder and Kauai Katie, were entered instead in the BC Juvenile Fillies.