Enable's connections contemplating final career start in Breeders' Cup Turf

The role of favorite for the $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf on Nov. 2 at Santa Anita may become clear in the next week.

Enable, the brilliant mare who was second in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris on Sunday and won the 2018 BC Turf at Churchill Downs, may be sent to California for a final career start. Teddy Grimthorpe, racing manager for owner Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms, wrote in an email Tuesday that a decision on Enable’s plans will be made “in the coming week or so.”

Enable would be a solid favorite if she runs in the BC Turf. A winner of 13 of 15 starts, Enable, 5, was 4-5 in the 2018 BC Turf.

:: BREEDERS’ CUP 2019: See DRF’s top contenders

Bricks and Mortar, the standout turf runner in the United States this year, is under consideration for the BC Turf and BC Mile. Trained by Chad Brown, Bricks and Mortar has never run 1 1/2 miles, the distance of the BC Turf, but was the outstanding winner of the Arlington Million at 1 1/4 miles on Aug. 10 in his most recent start.

While it is uncertain whether those runners will participate in the BC Turf, plans have been made for Arklow to be sent to California following his win in the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic last Saturday at Belmont Park.

Trained by Brad Cox for Jerry Crawford’s Donegal Racing, Joseph Bulger, and Peter Coneway, Arklow will be a longshot in the BC Turf. Aside from Enable and Bricks and Mortar, there is a contingent of highly rated European runners under consideration, including Waldgeist and Japan, who were first and fourth in the Arc de Triomphe; and Anthony Van Dyck, who won the English Derby in June.

Arklow won for the first time in nearly 13 months in the $507,500 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic, racing wide before edging Channel Maker by a half-length, with Sadler’s Joy a head behind in third. Arklow was second or third in four graded stakes in New York and Kentucky earlier this year before the win in the Joe Hirsch.

“It was an exciting race,” Cox said Tuesday. “He’s been part of a lot of exciting races and didn’t come out on the right end for us.”

Even with the prospects of tough competition from Europe, or Bricks and Mortar from the domestic roster, Cox said Arklow deserves a chance in the BC Turf. Last November, Arklow was fourth in the BC Turf, beaten 11 3/4 lengths by Enable as a 53-1 outsider.

“I’ve told Jerry Crawford, ‘He’s better this year than last year,’ so we’ll see,” Cox said.