Breeders' Cup Saturday could identify Horse of the Year candidates
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ARCADIA, Calif. – Amid the setting of one of the most idyllic sports venues in the world, but with a cloud of dismay hanging over it, the 40th Breeders’ Cup will have its second day of championship-defining races Saturday at Santa Anita, the results of which hopefully will help bring clarity to a muddled Horse of the Year picture.
The deaths of Breeders’ Cup contenders Practical Move [sudden death] and Geaux Rocket Ride [leg fracture] and the scratch and sudden retirement of Arcangelo [Classic] have dominated the news cycle leading up to the Breeders’ Cup.
The significant scrutiny of horses from track and event veterinarians in the name of equine safety has also been paramount this week as there were 10 scratches – Arcangelo, Algiers [Dirt Mile], Bradsell, One Timer, and Twilight Gleaming [Turf Sprint], Get Smokin [Turf], Exaulted [Mile], Grand Mo the First [Juvenile Turf], American Theorem [Sprint], and Alys Beach [Juvenile Fillies] – since entries were finalized Monday night with the expectation of more to come before Saturday.
One Timer, who drew into the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint when Bradsell was scratched, was scratched out of the race by the Breeders' Cup veterinarians on Thursday, trainer Larry Rivelli said.
"The vets scratched him," Rivelli said. "The horse has been going the same way his whole life. There's no difference than the way he was moving when he won $900,000."
The scratch of One Timer allows Beer Can Man to draw into the field. Trainer Phil D'Amato said Juan Hernandez will ride.
Arcangelo, the two-time Grade 1-winning 3-year-old, would have had a chance to clinch divisional and Horse of the Year honors with a victory in Saturday’s $6 million Classic. But he was scratched on Tuesday due to a hind foot issue that wasn’t going to resolve itself in time to allow him to run. Further, he was subsequently retired by his owner, Jon Ebbert.
Only four of the remaining 12 runners in the Classic – Arabian Knight, Saudi Crown, Bright Future, and White Abarrio – have won as much as a single Grade 1 race in 2023. Arabian Knight and Saudi Crown are 3-year-olds, neither of whom faced Arcangelo this year or participated in a Triple Crown race.
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In fact, the Japanese-bred Derma Sotogake is the only one of the 23 horses who entered the Kentucky Derby six months ago participating in the Breeders’ Cup. He has not run since a sixth-place finish in the Derby. (Reincarnate, 13th in the Derby, is running in Saturday’s Twilight Derby on turf.)
White Abarrio, who dominated a modest group in the Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga, leads the older male contingent in the Classic.
There are a handful of horses entering Saturday with credentials that, with a victory in their respective Breeders’ Cup races, could be candidates for Horse of the Year.
Up to the Mark, a three-time Grade 1-winning turf horse, starts in the $4 million Turf against one of the strongest group of European-based runners to contest the 1 1/2-mile race. Bricks and Mortar is the last turf horse to win Horse of the Year, having done so in 2019, the year he won the Breeders' Cup Turf.
“You can argue he’s in the conversation right now,” Todd Pletcher, trainer of Up to the Mark, said when asked if Up to the Mark could be Horse of the Year. “Has anyone else won three Grade 1s? A lot of it depends how the dominoes fall in a lot of these races, but he can certainly put himself in the conversation.”
The 4-year-old filly Idiomatic, who runs in the $2 million Distaff, has won 7 of 8 starts this year, five stakes, including two Grade 1s. In the Distaff, Idiomatic will face the 3-year-old filly Pretty Mischievous, who is a three-time Grade 1 winner, though one of those wins came in the accident-marred Test at Saratoga.
Cody’s Wish has won two Grade 1s in 2023 and though he faltered in the Grade 1 Whitney, he rebounded with a victory in the Grade 2 Vosburgh and now looks to end his career with a repeat victory in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.
His bond with the teenager Cody Dorman, who is afflicted with a rare genetic disorder, has been one of racing’s feel-good stories in a sport desperate for more.
- additional reporting by Steve Andersen
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