Goldencents uncertain to defend title
Five weeks out, the prospective field for the eighth running of the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile remains very much in flux, as the connections of several top contenders, including defending champ Goldencents, are noncommittal.
The Dirt Mile is limited to 12 starters at Santa Anita due to a short run to the first turn and is one of four Breeders’ Cup races to be run Friday, Oct. 31, along with the Juvenile Turf, Juvenile Fillies Turf, and Distaff.
Goldencents was a booming Dirt Mile winner from post 11 last year, when he ran 10 times as a 3-year-old. He has been sparingly raced at 4, however, with just three appearances thus far. After runner-up finishes in the Met Mile and Bing Crosby, he won his way into the Dirt Mile with a blowout win in the Pat O’Brien, but trainer Doug O’Neill – who worked the colt on turf last Saturday – said he could go in the Sprint or Dirt Mile, depending on how he does Oct. 4 in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship.
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Itsmyluckyday comes off a hard-fought win in the Woodward, and he is the 121-pound top weight in Saturday’s Kelso Handicap, a one-turn mile at Belmont Park. Trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. said his colt is coming into the race in top form after a half-mile breeze in 49.80 seconds at his Monmouth Park base last Saturday.
“It was just what we wanted,” said Plesa. “He galloped out strongly and finished in 11 and change. He’s coming into the race at 110 percent.”
Itsmyluckyday, who is not Breeders’ Cup nominated, could be supplemented to the Classic for $200,000, supplemented to the Dirt Mile for $120,000, or simply await the Cigar Mile at Aqueduct on Nov. 29.
In the aftermath of Bayern’s blowout win in the Pennsylvania Derby, Bob Baffert indicated he would take a wait-and-see approach as to whether the colt’s next start would be in the Classic or the Dirt Mile.
Perhaps the only sure thing is that Bronzo (who?) will run. The Chilean invader won his way in with a score in the Copa de Oro Breeders’ Cup at Club Hippico on June 27, and the 5-year-old son of Fusaichi Pegasus had recorded two published works at Santa Anita.