Rich Tapestry, Work All Week enter Breeders' Cup Sprint picture

The starting lineup for the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Sprint gained a couple of new players last weekend in Rich Tapestry and Work All Week, speedsters who couldn’t have come from more diverse backgrounds.

Rich Tapestry earned a berth in the Sprint with his victory over defending Breeders’ Cup race winners Goldencents and Secret Circle in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship on Saturday. The Santa Anita Sprint was the first U.S. appearance for the well-traveled Irish-bred, who calls Hong Kong home but whose biggest previous performance was a second-place finish in the Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen this year at Meydan.

Work All Week, on the other hand, is as American as a horse can get. A homebred son of City Zip, the 5-year-old gelding is owned by perennial U.S. win leader Midwest Thoroughbreds and trained by the affable Roger Brueggemann, a former mechanic currently stabled at Hawthorne Park. Work All Week earned a free ticket into the BC Sprint by winning the Phoenix Stakes on Friday at Keeneland, but he is not eligible for the Breeders’ Cup and thus will have to be supplemented to the race by his owners.

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“I spoke to my owner [Sunday], and it seems pretty certain at this point they’re going to put up the money, although right now, I’m not sure when we’re going or how we’re going to get there,” said Brueggemann, who has never had a Breeders’ Cup starter.

Work All Week stalked the pace under Florent Geroux, drew well clear in early stretch, then held sway over C. Zee while earning a 100 Beyer Speed Figure in the Phoenix. The win was the eighth in 10 starts at six furlongs for Work All Week, who had not started since finishing second in a restricted stakes for Illinois-breds at Arlington Park 10 weeks earlier.

“We weren’t concerned about the layoff; he always runs well fresh,” said Brueggemann. “His only two losses at six furlongs have come on the Polytrack, and he probably would have won those if it wasn’t for some bad luck. He’s a whole lot better on dirt. We’ve just been picking our spots with him and stepping him up a little at a time as he’s continued to improve.”

When he goes to the post in the BC Sprint at Santa Anita, it will mark the eighth different track that Work All Week has raced over in his last nine starts since the summer of 2013.

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“This horse and the The Pizza Man have taken me to places I’ve never been before,” said Brueggemann, who started training horses in 1990 after working as a mechanic for 30 years. “There have been a lot of hard times over the years, but this has really been fun, and I’m really looking forward to my first Breeders’ Cup experience.”

Like Work All Week, C. Zee is not eligible for the Breeders’ Cup, and his owner-breeder, Fred Brei, said he would not have put up the money to supplement to the BC Sprint even if his horse had won the Phoenix.

Two horses who registered optional-claiming victories last week, Bakken and Bahamian Squall, also have not been ruled out as potential BC Sprint starters. Trainer Chad Brown said he’d reserve a decision on Bakken’s status for the time being, while trainer David Fawkes said it seemed unlikely but not totally out of the question that Bahamian Squall could return to Santa Anita for the Sprint. Bahamian Squall finished sixth following a troubled beginning in the BC Sprint a year ago.