Key contenders in the 2017 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf

Key contenders in the Juvenile Turf

Masar, by New Approach
Last 3 Beyers: NA

• Smallest sample size possible, but trainer Charlie Appleby has run one horse in the Breeders’ Cup, Outstrip. Outstrip ran in the BC Juvenile Turf, and he won. Outstrip had won a group race two starts before the Juvenile Turf, then finished third in his Group 1 debut before coming to America. Masar has the same pattern.

• Was intended for the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy on Oct. 28 at Doncaster but was redirected here in search of firm turf. The soft ground last out at Chantilly was not to his liking, according to Appleby.

• Faded slightly late last time in the Jean-Luc Lagardere at seven furlongs, but laboring going and an uphill finish made that race play longer than its raw distances.

“He should get the trip and get further as a 3-year-old,” Appleby said.

• Showed push-button acceleration and a sustained finish beating lesser around a right-handed bend at Sandown two starts ago.

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James Garfield, by Exceed and Excel
Last 3 Beyers: NA

• First North American runner for 29-year-old trainer George Scott, who worked for a spell in California.

• Jockey Frankie Dettori urged Scott to consider the Juvenile Turf after riding the colt to a second-place finish in the Acomb Stakes in August. James Garfield subsequently won the Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes, punching his ticket here.

• Has two wins at six furlongs and lost both his seven-furlong races, but Scott believes he can get an American-style mile.

“You wouldn’t be sure he’d stay, but he’s out of a Daylami mare, and I think he can go a mile on this course,” Scott said.

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Snapper Sinclair, by City Zip
Last 3 Beyers: 72-72-61

• Has an outside draw but exits starts at seven furlongs and five furlongs, and in a race without a lot of pace he’ll have a chance to get over and into good position before the first turn.

• Trainer Steve Asmussen pointed his horse to this race as soon as Snapper Sinclair won the Kentucky Downs Juvenile on Sept. 3. Snapper Sinclair shipped to California in late September and has posted five workouts at either Santa Anita or Del Mar.

• DRF Formulator shows Asmussen and jockey Ricardo Santana combining to go 6-3-0-0 with a $4.51 ROI the last three years with 2-year-olds in turf-route races

Hemp Hemp Hurray, by Artie Schiller
Last 3 Beyers: 74-80-72

• Won his first two starts, both grass sprints, by more than seven lengths combined, showing good speed both times.

• Was taken back off the pace when going a one-turn mile at Woodbine in the Summer Stakes last out (a race in which he was a close second), but trainer Wesley Ward plans to have jockey John Velazquez utilize his mount’s speed Friday.

• Ward has done very well in this race, with a first, a second, a third, and a fourth from his five Juvenile Turf runners.

Mendelssohn, by Scat Daddy
Last 3 Beyers: NA

• He’s a half-brother to the champion dirt horse Beholder, and the expectation was he might get a shot in the BC Juvenile, but trainer Aidan O’Brien selected U S Navy Flag for that race.

• O’Brien said the colt was green and unfocused in the two bad losses showing in his form, which is why he added blinkers.

• Pulled hard early in the Dewhurst, and though he finished second, the race might not have been quite up to its lofty historical standards this season.

Voting Control, by Kitten’s Joy
Last 2 Beyers: 74-73

• Horse breaking directly to his outside made a left turn leaving the gate, badly compromising Voting Control’s start in the Pilgrim.

“He got wiped out,” trainer Chad Brown said.

• Brown has won with his last two 2-year-old turf starters in graded stakes over a route of ground, with Rushing Fall in the Jessamine and Significant Form in the Miss Grillo. But until then, he’d been 2-2-2 from 37 such runners dating to Lady Eli winning the Miss Grillo on Sept. 28, 2014.