Breeders' Cup Juvenile Sprint: Work key to decision on Trinniberg supplement

Aside from those owners whose horses won Win and You’re In races, resulting in expense-paid berths to the Breeders’ Cup, participating owners in the Breeders’ Cup must ante up a sizable 3 percent of the race purse to pre-enter and start their horse.

Of course, that’s relative pocket change compared to what owner Shivananda Parbhoo is expecting to pay by planning to supplement both Vosburgh winner Giant Ryan to the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 5 and Hopeful and Nashua runner-up Trinniberg to the inaugural $500,000 Juvenile Sprint a day earlier. Both supplements cost $100,000 to make them Breeders’ Cup eligible for the remainder of their careers.

In the case of Trinniberg, the risk relative to reward is poor. The horse needs to win to make a profit. Second place essentially gets him his money back, and anything worse and Parbhoo takes a financial hit.

It’s a risk he seems willing to take, provided Trinniberg works to his satisfaction in a drill scheduled for Thursday at Churchill Downs.

Trinniberg will breeze in company, and Parbhoo and his father, trainer Bisnath Parboo, want to see Trinniberg pull away from a workmate to feel confident in supplementing him to the Juvenile Sprint.

“I really don’t want to go in the race to run second,” Parbhoo said. “There are too many other races you can wait for.”

Trinniberg, considered “80 percent” likely to run, won’t face an easy task if he does compete.

Secret Circle, unbeaten in two starts in California, looms a short-priced favorite in the Juvenile Sprint for trainer Bob Baffert.

One horse no longer in the Juvenile Sprint picture is Majestic City, most recently the Breeders’ Futurity runner-up. He will go in either the Juvenile or Juvenile Turf, trainer Peter Miller said Wednesday.