C Z Rocket will be cross-entered but likely to go in BC Sprint

C Z Rocket, one of California’s top sprinters for more than a year, will be pre-entered for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint and Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile to be run Nov. 6 at Del Mar, trainer Peter Miller said Sunday.

C Z Rocket was second in the 2020 BC Sprint at Keeneland, and that race will be a first preference next month, Miller said.

“We’re going to consider the Dirt Mile, but it will probably be the Sprint,” Miller said.

A 7-year-old gelding, C Z Rocket races for Gary Barber, Tom Kagele, Madaket Stable, and Miller’s Altamira Racing Stable. Earlier this year, C Z Rocket won two graded sprint stakes at Oaklawn Park before finishing second in the Grade 3 Steve Sexton Mile at Lone Star Park in May.

In California in recent months, C Z Rocket was a fast-closing third in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at six furlongs at Del Mar in July, second in the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien Stakes at seven furlongs there in August, and third after a slow start in the Grade 2 Santa Anita Sprint Championship at six furlongs on Oct. 2.

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Miller, the leading trainer at the Del Mar summer meeting, plans to have three starters in Breeders’ Cup races, including Time to Party in the Juvenile Turf Sprint on Nov. 5 and the well-regarded Mo Forza in the Mile on Nov. 6.

Time to Party was second in the Speakeasy Stakes at five furlongs on turf on Oct. 1 at Santa Anita. A day later, Mo Forza remained unbeaten in two starts this year with a win in the Grade 2 City of Hope Mile.