Breeders' Cup Mile: A larger field than expected; Hannon will send Olympic Glory from England

Spend enough time around a racing office and you’ll notice the number of horses that wind up in a stakes race sometimes corresponds inversely to the number forecast to be entered.

When news of a short field spreads, horsemen sitting on the fence can decide en masse to take a shot. If a bulky field is widely predicted, the fence-sitters take a pass.

It doesn’t always work that way, but it did with the 2013 Breeders’ Cup Mile. A couple weeks ago Breeders’ Cup racing officials worried about getting fewer than 10 in the race. Instead, 16 horses were pre-entered for the Mile, though the field that goes to post almost certainly will be smaller.

At the head of the class sits the defending Mile champion and 2012 Horse of the Year, Wise Dan, whose surprising defeat in the Oct. 5 Shadwell Turf Mile, a race rained off turf and onto Keeneland’s Polytrack, might have emboldened the connections of marginal Mile entrants. Despite the defeat, Wise Dan’s first since a close second-place finish in June 2012, the 6-year-old gelding figures to be a defined favorite when the Mile betting is closed.

Three Mile entrants were entered with first preference in a different race: Boat Trip in the Turf Sprint, Jeranimo in the Turf Sprint, and Magician in the Turf. Toronado, one of two pre-entrants from English trainer Richard Hannon, will not ship for the Mile, and won’t run again until 2014, with a goal of making the BC Mile then, the trainer’s son and assistant, Richard Hannon Jr. said on the stable’s website Wednesday. Hannon, however, has decided to wheel Olympic Glory back for the Mile just two weeks after the elite 3-year-old won the prestigious Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot by 3 1/4 lengths. That victory and the generally sharp shape of Olympic Glory’s form might make him the Mile’s second betting choice, though Olympic Glory is an unknown quantity on fast-playing turf and around sharp turns like those at Santa Anita.

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

Silver Max, back in top form after a rough start to his 2013 campaign, led all the way in the Shadwell, turning back Wise Dan’s rally. He was sent early to California – breezing a sharp half-mile on dirt there Oct. 19 – by trainer Dale Romans, who surely will hope to draw outside Obviously. Silver Max has ample speed but is better at rating than Obviously, whose trainer, Mike Mitchell, said Obviously will be sent to the lead in the Mile.

Obviously, third in the 2012 Mile, could only finish fourth as the 1-2 favorite in the Oct. 5 City of Hope Mile at Santa Anita, and the top two from that race, No Jet Lag and He Be Fire N Ice, are among the Mile pre-entrants. He Be Fire N Ice was made eligible to the Breeders’ Cup at a cost of $100,000.

Flotilla, winner of the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf last year, will try to give females their ninth win in the Mile, though her form coming into the race is nowhere near as strong as the most recent filly hero, Goldikova.

Bright Thought, one of the surprise entrants, has not started since he won the San Luis Rey Stakes on March 16. The lone East Coast shipper is Za Approval, who won the Oct. 12 Knickerbocker after finishing second to Wise Dan and Obviously in his two previous races.