Breeders' Cup Turf: Little Mike breezes speedy five furlongs

ARCADIA, Calif. – Quick five-furlong workouts are rare for Little Mike, the 2012 winner of the Breeders’ Cup Turf. The 6-year-old gelding often works that distance in times of between 1:01 and 1:03 when exercising at Churchill Downs or Gulfstream Park, where he has been based with trainer Dale Romans the past few years.

On Saturday at Santa Anita, in his final workout before the $3 million BC Turf this coming Saturday, Little Mike was timed in 59.80 seconds for five furlongs on the main track.

“The best part was the gallop-out,” said Tammy Fox, Romans’s partner, who was aboard Little Mike. “I was sitting on him.”

Owned by Priscilla Vaccarezza, Little Mike worked alone Saturday. The exercise was delayed approximately 30 minutes by the breakdown of Points Offthebench, who was pre-entered for the BC Sprint.

Fox had Little Mike on the track when the incident occurred and was moments away from starting the workout when the track was closed. Fox took Little Mike into the seven-furlong chute until the track reopened.

Saturday’s workout was the second for Little Mike since arriving in California in mid-October. He worked five furlongs in 1:01 on Oct. 19.

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

Little Mike won the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Belmont Park on Sept. 28, his lone win in five starts this year. The victory assured breeder Carlo Vaccarezza, the owner’s husband, that Little Mike had recovered from a disappointing 11th-place finish in the $5 million Dubai Duty Free in the Middle East in March and was ready for the BC Turf.

“The Dubai trip took its toll,” Carlo Vaccarezza said Saturday. “I think after Dubai, it takes horses two or three races to come back to form. We wanted to give him some time after that, and it took a while to get weight back on.”

The BC Turf has 12 probable runners.

Grandeur declared from race

Grandeur, a three-time stakes winner based in England, was withdrawn from the BC Turf on Saturday after contracting a fever during transatlantic travel earlier in the week, according to Breeders’ Cup officials.

Trained by Jeremy Noseda, Grandeur has won 7 of 16 starts and earned $485,586. He was one of three European-based runners pre-entered for the BC Turf, along with the 4-year-old filly The Fugue and Magician, the winner of the Irish 2000 Guineas in May.

Aside from the Europeans and Little Mike, the expected runners are Big Blue Kitten, Indy Point, Point of Entry, Real Solution, Skyring, Tale of a Champion, Teaks North, Twilight Eclipse, and Vagabond Shoes.