Santa Anita: Goldencents ready to go long in Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile

ARCADIA, Calif. - Santa Anita Derby winner Goldencents worked five furlongs in 59 seconds Friday for a scheduled start in the $1 million BC Dirt Mile on Nov. 1. The Grade 1 BC Dirt Mile will be Goldencents’s first start around two turns since a fifth-place finish in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on May 18.

Since the Preakness, Goldencents has been second three times, all in sprints, including a runner-up finish to Points Offthebench in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship on Oct. 5.

Trainer Doug O’Neill said Friday that a return to longer races should not be a problem for Goldencents, who has won 4 of 11 starts and earned $1,440,000.

“I think the Santa Anita Derby validates that he can two-turn with top-quality horses,” O’Neill said. “We see him every day, but he gallops like a horse that won’t have trouble with the mile.”

O’Neill said he timed Goldencents galloping out six furlongs in 1:11.80 on Friday.

O’Neill said he has six other runners for Breeders’ Cup races – Home School in the Juvenile Turf, Bondholder and Rum Point in the Juvenile, Concave in the Juvenile Fillies, Private Zone in the Sprint, and Clenor in the Juvenile Fillies Turf.