Oscar Performance draws outside post for Arlington Million

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Brian Lynch hoped Oscar Performance would draw somewhere in the middle of the field for Saturday’s Arlington Million. That didn’t work out so well, but Oscar Performance still looks like the horse to beat in the 36th running of the Million.

Eleven horses were entered Tuesday for the 1 1/4-mile Million, and Oscar Performance will have 10 to his inside, none to his outside, and Jose Ortiz on his back when he tries to capture a Grade 1, 10-furlong Arlington turf race for the second year in a row. Last August, Oscar Performance won the Secretariat Stakes on the Million undercard. He comes into this race still very much a fresh horse, with just one race so far this year.

“He couldn’t be going into a race in any better order,” Lynch said.

The rest of the Million field, from the rail out and with jockeys, is Circus Couture (John Egan), Spring Quality (Edgar Prado), Almanaar (Joel Rosario), Divisidero (Jevian Toledo), Century Dream (William Buick), Catcho En Die (Jose Valdivia Jr.), Twenty Four Seven (Chris Emigh), Money Multiplier (John Velazquez), Deauville (Ryan Moore), and Robert Bruce (Irad Ortiz).

The Million starts on the end of the far turn, and post 11 is not ideal. Small sample sizes abound, but outside draws have fared poorly at this turf distance here. Since 2000, post 11 has produced one winner from 15 starters, post 10 is 1 for 22, and posts 12 and 13 have combined to produce no winners from 14 runners. Oscar Performance does have plenty of pace to get over into decent position, provided he breaks alertly.

Trainer Chad Brown, seeking his third Million overall and second in a row, has three entrants in Almanaar, Money Multiplier, and the outside-drawn Robert Bruce. Spring Quality won the Manhattan last out. Century Dream rates a better shot than the other two Europeans, Deauville and Circus Couture.

Nine older fillies and mares were entered in the 1 3/16-mile Beverly D. That field, from the rail out and with riders, is Daddys Lil Darling (Brian Hernandez Jr.), Nyaleti (Sylvestre de Sousa), Sistercharlie (Velazquez), Dona Bruja (Valdivia), Thais (Florent Geroux), Oh So Terrible (Sophie Doyle), Fourstar Crook (Irad Ortiz), Inflexibility (Joel Rosario), and Athena (Moore).

Sistercharlie, who won the Grade 1 Diana on July 21 at Saratoga, is the likely favorite and is one of four entrants trained by Brown, who has won the Beverly D. a remarkable three years in a row. Fourstar Crook beat Sistercharlie in the New York Stakes, while Inflexibility appears to be a cut below the top two and Thais is a potential pacemaker for Sistercharlie since the two horses have common ownership and Thais appears overmatched.

Dona Bruja is a dangerous horse and dead-heated for second in the 2017 Beverly D. Athena won the Belmont Oaks Invitational and would be just the second 3-year-old Beverly D. winner following Euro Charline in 2014.

The Secretariat was drawn with 13 entrants after pre-entrant Linburgh’s Kitten, who clearly was going to be a pacemaker for Sniper Kitten, wasn’t entered. That field starting from the inside consists of Real Story (Valvidia), Platinum Warrior (Rosario), Bandua (Buick), Carrick (Velazquez), Pont du Gard (Mitchell Murrill), Ming (Billy Lee), Captivating Moon (Geroux), Untamed Domain (Irad Ortiz), Analyze It (Jose Ortiz), Sniper Kitten (Hernandez), Dubby Dubbie (Jack Gilligan), Lucius Tiberius (Wayne Lordan), and Hunting Horn (Moore).

Analyze It, a tough second last out in the Belmont Derby Invitational and also trained by Brown, is the defined favorite in the 1 1/4-mile Secretariat.