Only 12 spots for 23 hopefuls

The $1 million Breeders Cup Juvenile Turf offers half the purse of the Juvenile and less prestige, in part because the Juvenile Turf lacks graded status for its inaugural running.

Yet everyone it seems wants to run in the race. Twenty-three horses were announced Wednesday as pre-entered for the mile turf race, the most of the 11 Breeders Cup races, including the Juvenile, which drew 16.

With the field size for this race limited to 12 starters, the list of alternates nearly matches those who made it into the race. Three colts Old Man Buck, Preachin Man and Texas Fever gained entry into the race on the basis of points earned by top-three finishes in U.S. graded races, which left the Breeders Cup selection committee to determine nine other starters, plus a list of alternates.

There were few surprises among the nine horses chosen to join Old Man Buck, Preachin Man, and Texas Fever. Four European colts with established form overseas Achill Island, Domestic Fund, Ibn Khaldun, and Strike the Deal were selected, as were five U.S.-based horses that had won stakes races on grass: Cherokee Triangle, Gio Ponti, Nownownow, Prussian, and The Leopard.

Shore Do who is in the field for the Juvenile, listed as his first preference heads the list of 11 alternates. He is followed, in order of preference by the selection committee, by Your Round, Globetrotter, Annie Skates, Moral Compass, Cowboy Cal, Why Tonto, Horse Doctor, Cannonball, Overextended, and Austintatious.

Besides Shore Do, four other Juvenile Turf pre-entries were cross-entered in other races. Annie Skates is the first alternate for the Juvenile Fillies, her first preference. Old Man Buck has second preference in the Juvenile. Overextended has first preference in the Juvenile, and Texas Fever has second preference in the Juvenile.

Provided Old Man Buck and Texas Fever race in the Juvenile Turf, their first preferences, that would clear the way for Overextended to start in the Juvenile.

Your Round ran third in the Grade 3 Summer Stakes at Woodbine behind Prussian, and Globetrotter won the Grade 3 Grey Breeders Cup there. But horses are not given Breeders Cup qualifying points for running in Canadian graded stakes.