C Z Rocket will lead Miller team of four into Breeders' Cup

Led by the sprinter C Z Rocket, California trainer Peter Miller plans to have four runners in three Breeders’ Cup races at Keeneland on Nov. 6-7.

C Z Rocket will be pre-entered in the BC Sprint and BC Dirt Mile, both on Nov. 7, with the BC Sprint as the 6-year-old gelding’s first preference, Miller said Sunday.

C Z Rocket won the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien Stakes at seven furlongs at Del Mar on Aug. 29 to earn a fees-paid berth in the Dirt Mile, and won the Grade 2 Santa Anita Sprint Championship at six furlongs on Sept. 27 to earn a fees-paid berth in the BC Sprint.

Bulletproof One and Texas Wedge will be pre-entered for the BC Turf Sprint on Nov. 7.

Bulletproof One won the Unzip Me Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at about 5 1/2 furlongs at Santa Anita on Sept. 26 for her first stakes win of 2020 and third of her career. Texas Wedge won two turf sprint stakes in January at Santa Anita and Gulfstream Park and was fourth as the 2-1 favorite on yielding turf in the Jim McKay Turf Sprint at Pimlico on Oct. 1.

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Ebeko won the Zuma Beach Stakes for 2-year-olds at a mile at Santa Anita on Oct. 4 and is a candidate for the Juvenile Turf on Nov. 6.

Miller has lost two leading candidates for Breeders’ Cup races with the defections of Get Her Number from the Juvenile and Mo Forza from the Mile.

Get Her Number won the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes at Santa Anita on Sept. 26 and will be pointed to races at that track’s winter-spring meeting in early 2021. Get Her Number remains with Miller’s stable at the San Luis Rey Downs training center in San Diego County.

Miller said on Oct. 18 that Get Her Number was sidelined with a minor injury.

Mo Forza was taken out of consideration for the BC Mile on Saturday with what Miller described as “a minor injury.” Mo Forza is not expected to race again until next summer at the earliest, with the BC Mile at Del Mar in November 2021 as a long-term goal.

“We’ll give him as much time as he needs,” Miller said. “There is no time to rush him back because our goal is the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar. Our goal is one or two preps.”

Wyfire, second by a head in the Speakeasy Stakes for 2-year-old turf sprinters at Santa Anita on Sept. 26, will not start in the BC Juvenile Turf Sprint on Nov. 6, Miller said. Wyfire is not expected to race again until early 2021.

“He’s getting a break,” Miller said.