Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint attracts familiar cast

There are several familiar faces in the oversubscribed group of pre-entries for the Grade 1, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. Two-time defending race winner Stormy Liberal is looking to turn his fortunes of this season around, while Om and Pure Sensation, who have both placed in this race in past years, come in for another try in solid form.

The Turf Sprint is limited to 12 starters, with four also-eligibles carried on the program. The race drew that exact number, with 16 pre-entries when they were taken Monday. If all 12 horses currently qualified or selected for the main body of the field are entered when final entries are taken and posts drawn next Monday, Final Frontier and Shekky Shebaz, who made up the exacta in the Belmont Turf Sprint Invitational, would be the first two on the outside looking in. Girls Know Best and Double Touch, in that order of preference, are the other two pre-entered horses currently excluded from the field.

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Stormy Liberal won the 2017 Turf Sprint at Del Mar and last year’s edition at Churchill Downs, a victory that locked up the Eclipse Award as male turf horse for him. However, he is winless in six starts this year, although he has missed the board only once. He most recently finished third in the Grade 2 Eddie D Stakes at Santa Anita behind the since-injured Pee Wee Reese and fellow Turf Sprint pre-entry Eddie Haskell, the 4-1 early favorite on Daily Racing Form handicapper Brad Free’s morning line. The Eddie D was run at the same five-furlong trip on the Santa Anita course that the Turf Sprint will be contested at. In past renewals at Santa Anita, the race was run at 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course, which is not in use at this meeting.

Stormy Liberal is one of three Turf Sprint pre-entries for trainer Peter Miller, along with Belvoir Bay and Om. Miller is one of three trainers with multiple pre-entries, along with Rusty Arnold (Leinster, Totally Boss), Aidan O’Brien (Fairyland, So Perfect), and Doug O’Neill (Legends of War, Stubbins).

Multiple graded stakes winner Om was second by a nose to Obviously in the 2016 Turf Sprint at Santa Anita. This year, he was second to the since-retired World of Trouble in the Grade 1 Jaipur Invitational at Belmont before defeating Totally Boss in a deep allowance race at Churchill Downs. He is unstarted since that effort in June.

Pure Sensation will be taking his fourth tilt at the Breeders’ Cup, having finished eighth in the 2015 Turf Sprint at Keeneland, third in the 2016 edition at Santa Anita, and fifth in 2017 at Del Mar. The gelding appears to be as good as ever this year at age 8, having won 4 of 5 outings, including the Grade 3 Parx Dash and, most recently, the Grade 3 Turf Monster at Parx Racing.