Repeat after me: The Mile is the Breeders’ Cup race that the same horse wins more than once. Miesque in 1987 and 1988; Lure in 1992 and 1993; Da Hoss in 1996 and 1998; Goldikova in 2008, 2009, and 2010; Wise Dan in 2012 and 2013. These turf milers all came back for more and knew where to find it. How ironic is it that the 2019 BC Mile winner is named Uni, the numerical prefix for “one” in Latin? A year after her electrifying Mile win at Santa Anita, Uni is back to become the latest Mile runner to do it twice. Uni loved Santa Anita’s fast-playing, short-cut course, but she’s got a knack for Keeneland, too. She won the First Lady there in autumn 2019 en route to her Mile victory and won that race again Oct. 3. The First Lady was a big deal for Uni, who was very slow to get her 2020 campaign going and in her two starts before Keeneland looked very little like the champion turf female of 2019. But Uni, trained by Chad Brown, got back on track in the First Lady and has since turned in workouts suggesting she truly has returned to form. And if not Uni, Brown, who won his first Mile last year, has other chances. :: BREEDERS’ CUP 2020: See DRF’s special section with top contenders, odds, comments, news, and more for each division Brown has two more, Digital Age and Raging Bull, in the 14-strong main body of the $2 million Mile, which drew 16 entrants whose connections listed the Mile as their first preference and 18 in total. Digital Age cuts back to one mile after victory in the Grade 1 Old Forester Turf Classic over 1 1/8 miles, while Raging Bull’s major 2020 win came May 29 in the Shoemaker Mile, where Raging Bull, a one-run closer, got a great pace setup. The other North American pre-entrants with the Mile as first preference are Beau Recall, Casa Creed, Factor This, Halladay, Ivar, and March to the Arch. Brad Cox trains the mare Beau Recall, most recently runner up in the First Lady, and Factor This, whose best distance is perhaps a furlong farther than one mile. Halladay, a front-runner, broke through in the Grade 1 Fourstardave but suffered a leg infection that kept him out of the Shadwell Turf Mile after trainer Todd Pletcher shipped the horse from New York to Keeneland. March to the Arch historically has been more a Grade 2 type than a truly elite miler, though his trainer, Mark Casse, won the 2015 Mile at Keeneland with the mare Tepin. :: Play the Breeders’ Cup with DRF! Visit our Breeders’ Cup shop for Packages, PPs, Clocker Reports, Betting Strategies, and more Tepin had displayed her fondness for Keeneland’s sand-based turf course romping in the First Lady in early October 2015, and this year, the horse who really seemed to take to Keeneland was the Brazilian-bred Argentine import Ivar. Trained by Paulo Lobo, Ivar was champion 2-year-old in Argentina and ran to his best Southern Hemisphere form when he stormed to a one-length victory Oct. 3 in the Shadwell Turf Mile. The European pre-entrants are Circus Maximus, Kameko, Lope Y Fernandez, One Master, Order of Australia, Safe Voyage, and Siskin. Circus Maximus finished fourth in the 2019 Mile, One Master fifth in the 2018 Mile, and Kameko, a son of Kitten’s Joy, was born and raised in America before being sold as a yearling and sent overseas. A Group 1 winner at 2, Kameko won the 2000 Guineas to start his 3-year-old campaign and after two Group 1 tries at distances longer than his best and a terrible-trip fourth in the one-mile Sussex, Kameko won the one-mile Joel Stakes on Sept. 25 to punch his ticket back to America. Siskin, another 3-year-old, won the Irish 2000 Guineas and at his best is at least close to Kameko’s equal. Two things with Siskin: He won’t even be shipped if there’s a strong chance of an especially soft course, and twice he has acted up badly in the starting gate before races. The mare Starship Jubilee is listed in the main body of the Mile field because she won the Woodbine Mile, a Breeders’ Cup Challenge race, but is expected to start in the Filly and Mare Turf. The first horse that would move into the field’s main body with her defection is Sharp Samurai, who’s expected to start in the Dirt Mile, which would allow Lope Y Fernandez to join his Aidan O’Brien-trained stablemate Circus Maximus on a flight from Ireland to Kentucky. That would leave Casa Creed the first horse excluded from the Mile, with a third O’Brien-trained horse, Order of Australia, below Casa Creed and unlikely to ship.