Sophomores have elders surrounded in BC Classic

With the Breeders’ Cup returning to Santa Anita for the third straight year this fall, there was great anticipation for the 2014 event immediately following last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic, what with so many of the top contenders remaining in training, like the victorious Mucho Macho Man, runner-up and 3-year-old champion Will Take Charge, and also-rans like Palace Malice, the Belmont Stakes winner, and Game On Dude, the beaten favorite.

Wouldn’t it be something if they all met again the next year?

So much for that narrative. The older-horse division has taken a beating in recent weeks, with none of those horses available to compete in this year’s Classic on Nov. 1, when the 31st Breeders’ Cup is held. But in their stead has emerged a 3-year-old crop that – either through its own accomplishments, the attrition of its elders, or some combination thereof – has emerged as a potent force for this year’s Classic, none stronger than the unbeaten Shared Belief, who beat older horses in the Pacific Classic and looks to do it again Saturday at Santa Anita in the Grade 1, $300,000 Awesome Again Stakes.

The Awesome Again, at 1 1/8 miles, and the Grade 1, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup over 1 1/4 miles at Belmont Park on Saturday, are the final major preps for the $5 million Classic, run five weeks hence at 1 1/4 miles. In both races, 3-year-olds will have a chance to show how they measure up against their elders. Both races will be among those televised live by NBCSN during a 2 1/2-hour telecast beginning at 5:30 p.m. Eastern.

Shared Belief, last year’s champion 2-year-old male, already is a known quantity when facing elders. He did not have the easiest of trips in the Pacific Classic but overcame an awkward start and some traffic heading into the far turn to prevail, again, as always. He has put himself in a position to win Eclipse Awards as both champion male 3-year-old and Horse of the Year if he can close the year with victories in the Awesome Again and BC Classic.

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In the Awesome Again, Shared Belief is scheduled to take on Majestic Harbor and Imperative, older horses whom he soundly defeated in the Pacific Classic, as well as Fed Biz, who is expected to use the Awesome Again as his final prep for the BC Dirt Mile.

The Pacific Classic was run on Polytrack at Del Mar. This will be the first time that Shared Belief has run at Santa Anita. In his only race on dirt, he won the Los Alamitos Derby. Majestic Harbor won the Gold Cup at Santa Anita in June.

The California-based 3-year-old division is deep, with Shared Belief, Pennsylvania Derby winner Bayern, and California Chrome, the winner of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. All are pointing to the BC Classic. Bayern and California Chrome had their final preps in the Pennsylvania Derby, in which California Chrome was sixth in his first start since the Triple Crown.

On the East Coast, the Gold Cup will help determine the pecking order of 3-year-olds vis-à-vis older horses. V. E. Day and Wicked Strong, the Jimmy Jerkens-trained duo who ran one-two in the Travers Stakes, and Tonalist, who was third in the Travers but won the Belmont Stakes in June, all will face elders, including Moreno, who won the Whitney and was second in the Woodward this summer at Saratoga.

Moreno, in fact, is the only horse among the 11 who ran in last year’s Classic who is likely to make it back for this year’s running. He finished 10th last year at 32-1.

Though this will be the third straight year that the Breeders’ Cup will be run at Santa Anita, and the eighth time overall, tying it with Churchill Downs as the host of the most Breeders’ Cup events – much has changed since the 2013 running. Most significantly, Santa Anita has installed a new dirt surface. It will be unveiled for racing Friday, the opening day of the track’s fall meeting, but trainers who have had horses working over it in recent weeks say it is a touch slower than what was previously there.

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The dirt surface was the source of much controversy at last year’s Breeders’ Cup. Most of the races on the Friday card were dominated by front-runners, though that was not the case in the Distaff, where the victorious Beholder and runner-up Close Hatches came from third and fourth in a short field of six. The track played much fairer Saturday, the day of the Classic.

The Breeders’ Cup itself has undergone some tweaks. Though it will be conducted over two days for the eighth straight year – this year on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 – the program has been truncated to 13 races. The Marathon is the latest race to be scrapped, after six runnings, joining the Juvenile Sprint, which was held only in 2011 and 2012, when the Breeders’ Cup bloated to 15 races.

The Friday, Oct. 31, card will have four Breeders’ Cup races, the feature being the Distaff, with Beholder and Close Hatches expected to meet again. The Saturday, Nov. 1, card will have nine Breeders’ Cup races, with the Classic the anchor leg.

The next few weekends will feature all the final preps for the Breeders’ Cup, with many races, including the Awesome Again and Jockey Club Gold Cup, offering fees-paid berths to the Breeders’ Cup through the generous Win and You’re In program.

Pre-entries for the Breeders’ Cup are due Oct. 20 and will be announced Oct. 22. Final entries are submitted, and post positions for all 13 races drawn, Oct. 27.