Wise Dan finds himself in familiar role of Breeders' Cup Mile favorite

Wise Dan has been favored in his last 17 starts and an odds-on favorite in 15 of them, and after winning the Shadwell Turf Mile by one length Saturday, he will be favored again when he tries to win the Breeders’ Cup Mile for the third straight year.

Wise Dan had his head turned when the gate sprang in the Shadwell, but that was the last anxious moment he had. He won comfortably without having to run especially hard or escape trouble and seems to have bounced out of his race in great shape.

“All indications are he’s fine,” trainer Charlie LoPresti said Monday. “When we take him back to the track, we’ll know a little more. I’ll do a little something with him Wednesday as long as the weather is good.”

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There will be calls, as usual, for Wise Dan to step outside the middle-distance turf division for a greater challenge like the Breeders’ Cup Classic. LoPresti had dinner a couple of hours after the Shadwell with owner-breeder Mort Fink. Nothing has been “set in stone,” LoPresti said, but Fink has never wavered this year in his desire to keep Wise Dan in middle-distance grass races.

“I think Mr. Fink is of the opinion he’d like to stick to the same plan and go to the Mile,” LoPresti said.

As for LoPresti, he will stick to the same blueprint he used to get Wise Dan from the Shadwell to the Mile the last two years. Wise Dan will have one moderately major workout and then a shorter blowout just before departing for Santa Anita. The way his race went Saturday left LoPresti feeling good about the lead-up to the big race.

“I think he only ran hard the last three-eighths of a mile,” said LoPresti. “He was pulling away at the end, and he didn’t have to carry all that weight. It should set us up really well.”

Still, Wise Dan might have no shortage of Mile challengers, with Breeders’ Cup officials considering about 20 horses as possible starters as of Monday. That list could include four more out of the Shadwell: Grand Arch (2nd), Sayaad (3rd), Kaigun (4th), and Seek Again (6th). Seek Again endured his second straight tough trip, losing all chance Saturday when he was checked and swung from the rail to the outside in midstretch.

Anodin, a France-based horse who long has been pointed toward the Mile, finished a troubled fifth Sunday in the Group 1 Prix de la Foret at Longchamp and remains on course for the Mile. Others from that race under consideration are Darwin and Karakontie. Veda, a French filly who was second in a Group 2 on Saturday in France, also is a possible runner.