It should come as no surprise that European shippers have won eight of the 13 editions of the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. America has the best young dirt horses, Europe the best young turf horses. The best of the best Europeans, by the time Breeders’ Cup rolls around, often have been put away for the winter, their connections eying European classic races the following season, but there remains plenty of capable stock targeting a race richer than anything available for European 2-year-olds back home. So, while 2020 in many respects feels nothing like anything in recent history, the shape of the Juvenile Turf, heavy on capable overseas horses, seems familiar. Half the 14 horses selected into the main body of the Juvenile Turf field will travel across the Atlantic. Those are Battleground, the lone starter for Aidan O’Brien, leading trainer in the Juvenile Turf with four winners; Cadillac, winner of the Sept. 12 Champions Juvenile Stakes, part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series; Devilwala, fourth at 100-1 last out in the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes; Go Athletico, second Oct. 10 in the Group 2 Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte; New Mandate, who won the Royal Lodge Stakes, part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series, in his most recent start; Sealiway, whose BC Challenge Series win in the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere came by a whopping eight lengths; and The Lir Jet, who never has raced beyond six furlongs but worked around a turn this past week to prepare for his Keeneland start. :: Play the Breeders’ Cup with DRF! Visit our Breeders’ Cup shop for Packages, PPs, Clocker Reports, Betting Strategies, and more The North Americans in the main body of this one-mile contest consist of Abarta, runner-up in the Bourbon Stakes over the Keeneland course; Ebeko, a California-based longshot; Fire At Will, who wired the Pilgrim Stakes at Belmont while setting a dawdling pace; Gretzky the Great, solid winner of the Grade 1 Summer Stakes at Woodbine; Mutasaabeq, the leading North American hope off a good-looking course-and-distance win in the Bourbon; Outadore, a lightly raced Wesley Ward-trained colt who scored a sharp sprint win at Kentucky Downs; and Public Sector, who rallied into Fire At Will’s slow fractions and finished second in the Pilgrim. Chad Brown, who trains Public Sector, won his first Juvenile Turf last year with Structor. Trainer Todd Pletcher, in whose barn resides Mutasaabeq, won the 2010 Juvenile Turf with Pluck, while Ward won in 2014 with Hootenanny. Nine pre-entrants, two of whom were pre-entered with first preference in the Juvenile Turf Sprint, were excluded from the field’s main body. Those horses, listed as they’re ranked, are Into the Sunrise, After Five, Barrister Tom, It Can Be Done, Harlan Estate, Catman, Dolder Grand, Windy City Red, and Gypsy King. :: BREEDERS’ CUP 2020: See DRF’s special section with top contenders, odds, comments, news, and more for each division O’Brien’s four Juvenile Turf victories include the 2015 renewal at Keeneland, won by Hit It a Bomb. O’Brien won the BC Turf that year with Found, and his 2020 Juvenile Turf entrant, Battleground, is Found’s first foal to race. Battleground won well in a maiden race and the Group 2 Vintage Stakes but missed an intended start Sept. 12 in the National Stakes, his connections said at the time, with a cough. Battleground, Cadillac, New Mandate, and Sealiway look like the leading overseas challengers. Fifty-two-year-old Frederic Rossi, who never has started a Breeders’ Cup horse, trains Sealiway, who would be a force at Keeneland were he to run back to his eye-catching performance Oct. 4 in the seven-furlong Jean-Luc Lagardere. That race was run over heavy ground that Sealiway clearly handled better than most, but this colt had solid form entering the race and might merely be good. “It looks like the ground at Keeneland could be softer than usual,” Rossi said. “The soft ground at Longchamp may have helped him a bit, but perhaps not as much as one might think. He has been maturing all season and he peaked at that time.” If the peak persists, Sealiway could win again. And it can’t hurt that he has come from overseas.