Plans in flux for BC Dirt Mile winner City of Light

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – City of Light, the dynamic winner of the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Saturday, “came out of the race in great shape” and was scheduled to return on Monday to his home base at Santa Anita, where a plan will be decided regarding a next start, trainer Michael McCarthy said on Sunday at Churchill Downs.

City of Light is scheduled to go to Lane’s End Farm upon retirement, but when that happens, and what City of Light’s race schedule will be, is in flux.

What is certain is that City of Light ran the best race of his career on Saturday, earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 110, a career-best and the sixth straight time he had a Beyer of 102 or greater. The Dirt Mile was his third Grade 1 win.

City of Light has now won five times in 10 starts, including Grade 1 victories in the Malibu and Triple Bend – both seven furlongs – as well as the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap going 1 1/8 miles.

McCarthy and trainer John Sadler, both based in Southern California, were housed in Barn 43 this week at Churchill Downs, and they congratulated each other Sunday morning. Sadler had a big win in the Classic with Accelerate, but his colt Catalina Cruiser was well back of City of Light in the Dirt Mile.

Catalina Cruiser, unbeaten in four starts going into the Dirt Mile and the odds-on favorite in the race, was done at the top of the stretch and faded to sixth in the field of nine, 17 1/2 lengths behind City of Light.

Catalina Cruiser left for California early Sunday morning and will get a “full-on vetting at home,” Sadler said. Sadler said Catalina Cruiser “seemed fine right after the race.”

“But when a horse that good doesn’t run well, chances are something’s amiss,” Sadler said. “We’ll do a nuclear scan, see where we’re at. It’s the end of the year; we’ll check him out good and go on from there.”

Catalina Cruiser is scheduled to remain in training next year at age 5. He is a year younger than Accelerate, who is going to stud in 2019 at Lane’s End, and the thought of Sadler and co-owners Kosta and Pete Hronis prior to the Dirt Mile was that Catalina Cruiser could have a 2019 campaign similar to what Accelerate did this year.

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