Favorite likely to come from overseas

No matter who wins the $600,000 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Belmont Park on Saturday or the $200,000 John Henry Turf Championship at Santa Anita on Sunday, one thing is virtually certain for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 1 – a European-based runner will be favored.

With a little more than a month remaining for the nation’s richest turf race, the domestic group for the BC Turf is starting to assemble. Main Sequence, Imagining, and Twilight Eclipse are among the leading contenders for the Hirsch. Big John B heads the candidates for the John Henry Turf Championship.

They are likely to face formidable opposition from Europe in the Breeders’ Cup, including runners from trainers Aidan O’Brien and Michael Stoute, who have each won the BC Turf four times.

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Stoute, who most recently won the BC Turf with Conduit at Santa Anita in 2009, trains Telescope, a 4-year-old colt who has won two stakes, including the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot in June. Telescope was third behind the O’Brien-trained Australia in the Group 1 Juddmonte International Stakes at York, England, in August. Telescope is not expected to start again before the BC Turf.

O’Brien won the BC Turf for the fourth time last year at Santa Anita with Magician, who was second in the Arlington Million in August, his most recent start.

As of Wednesday, Telescope was the 7-2 favorite for the BC Turf with the Irish bookmaker Paddy Power, followed by Magician at 6-1. Imagining and Main Sequence were the lowest-priced American runners at 8-1.

The list of foreign runners will be better known following the $6,425,000 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in Paris on Oct. 5. The race is the focal point of the European flat season. Both the BC Turf and Arc are run over 1 1/2 miles.

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Main Sequence was a group stakes winner in England and was second to Camelot in the 2012 English Derby. He is unbeaten in two starts in this country – the Grade 1 United Nations Stakes at Monmouth Park in July and the Grade 1 Sword Dancer Stakes at Saratoga in August. His trainer, Graham Motion, won the 2004 BC Turf at Lone Star Park with Better Talk Now.