Stoute has key pair for Turf

The addition of the 2006 Turf winner, Red Rocks, to this year's Turf hardly adds luster to a field that has cut up badly in recent weeks. With America's best turf horse, Gio Ponti, going in the Classic, Charlie Whittingham winner Midships through for the year, Canadian International winner Champs Elysees retired, Irish Derby winner Fame and Glory off form and staying home in Ireland, and three-time Arc runner-up Youmzain headed to the Japan Cup, what might have been a superb race could become an intramural affair between defending champ Conduit and his Michael Stoute-trained stablemate Spanish Moon.

That is, if Stoute decides to send them both to Santa Anita. Spanish Moon will be there, but Conduit could still head straight to the Japan Cup off his fine Arc fourth, an effort that came off an 10-week layoff. Dar Re Mi will likely be pre-entered in both the Turf and the Filly and Mare Turf, but as trainer John Gosden thinks she is better going 12 furlongs, she is more likely to wind up in the Turf.