Breeders' Cup Mile: Hannon pre-enters pair of Olympic Glory and Toronado

The $2 million Breeders’ Cup Mile briefly got a major boost when Richard Hannon Jr., the son and assistant to English trainer Richard Hannon, announced on the stable’s website Sunday that Olympic Glory, impressive winner of the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on Saturday at Ascot, might well be wheeled back for the BC Mile.

But the younger Hannon, reached by phone Monday, cast things in a different light. Yes, he confirmed that both Olympic Glory and the stable’s other top 3-year-old Toronado had been pre-entered in the Mile, but it was possible neither horse would be shipped for the race, and Toronado is a more likely Mile starter than Olympic Glory.

“We’ve entered both of them, but it’s yet to be decided what we’ll do,” he said. “We’re going to take a look this week and go from there, but it’s more likely to be Toronado of the two at this stage, if any. It’s not certain that either horse will go.”

Olympic Glory had underwhelmed in his previous start, finishing a distant second to Maxios on Sept. 15 in the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp, but Hannon raced Olympic Glory in blinkers for the first time Saturday and the colt improved dramatically, beating a good QE II field by 3 1/4 lengths, albeit over soft going that he handled and several others did not.

[BREEDERS’ CUP 2013: See DRF’s top contenders]

Olympic Glory, a six-time-winning son of Choisir, clearly has a fondness for soft and heavy turf, but he has run well on a firm course before, coming within a nose of top-class Moonlight Cloud in the Prix Jacques Le Marois this summer despite a troubled trip.

At his best, Toronado has been at least Olympic Glory’s equal, but he was held out of the QE II last weekend because of wet turf. Toronado has not raced since he finished last of six in the Aug. 21 Juddmonte International and subsequently underwent minor surgery to repair a breathing problem. Toronado had a serious workout two weekends ago, and the younger Hannon said the stable was “very happy with him at the moment.”

The major U.S.-based BC Mile hopefuls all worked this past weekend. At Keeneland, defending Mile winner Wise Dan went a half-mile on Polytrack in a quick 47.40 seconds. Silver Max, who handed Wise Dan his first loss of the year in the off-turf Shadwell Turf Mile on Oct. 5, was shipped early to Santa Anita by trainer Dale Romans and zipped a half-mile on dirt there Saturday in 46.80. Obviously, third in the 2012 Mile, went a bullet five furlongs on turf Saturday in 58.40, while No Jet Lag, who won the City of Hope Mile, a race in which Obviously faded to fourth, went the same distance in 58.80 on Saturday.