Surfaces switches spice up Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf pre-entries

The $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf could lose its probable favorite, but it gained an interesting addition when pre-entries for the one-mile grass race Nov. 4 at Santa Anita were announced Wednesday.

Good Samaritan, an impressive winner of his career debut in a Saratoga turf route and of the Grade 2 Summer Stakes over one mile on grass at Woodbine, was among the 19 pre-entries for the Juvenile Turf and looms the potential favorite if he runs, but his connections entered him with first preference in the Juvenile. Bill Mott, Good Samaritan’s trainer, said last month that there had been discussions about trying Good Samaritan on dirt after the Breeders’ Cup, but the timetable for that option apparently has been moved up.

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Meanwhile, Favorable Outcome is slated to make his first grass start in the Juvenile Turf. Trained by Chad Brown, Favorable Outcome sharply won his career debut in a Saratoga dirt sprint, then finished third when stretched to a mile on the Belmont Park main track in the Oct. 8 Champagne Stakes. Favorable Outcome is by Flatter and out of Shananies Song, who was a dirt sprinter during her racing career.

Brown, who has yet to win the Juvenile Turf, has a second horse for the race, Ticonderoga, who was second to Good Samaritan in his career debut, won a Belmont maiden race, and finished second to Juvenile Turf starter All Right in the Bourbon Stakes at Keeneland. Ticonderoga began racing with blinkers two races ago, but a lack of focus cost him in the Bourbon, and Brown said he would continue to tinker to help Ticonderoga run straight.

All Right, the Bourbon winner, was second in the With Anticipation to Made You Look, who has been trained up to the Juvenile Turf since that start by Todd Pletcher. Pletcher’s second pre-entrant, J. S. Choice, leads the list of the five excluded horses and would get into the main body of the race if Good Samaritan winds up in the Juvenile.

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Horses who shipped from overseas have won six of the nine editions of the Juvenile Turf, and four Europeans – Intelligence Cross, Lancaster Bomber, Pleaseletmewin, and Rodaini – are among the 14 leading pre-entrants. Intelligence Cross and Lancaster Bomber are trained by Aidan O’Brien, who has won this race three times in the last five years.

Intelligence Cross, who has raced six times, has yet to race beyond six furlongs and is only a winner at the Group 3 level. Lancaster Bomber appears to have been used in his last two starts as a pacemaker for Churchill, a leading hope for the 2016 classic races in England and Ireland, but managed to hang on for second behind his stablemate last out in the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes.

Pleaseletmewin won a Group 3 on Oct. 22 and already has raced seven times. Rodaini would be the first Breeders’ Cup starter for former Godolphin racing manager and current trainer Simon Crisford.