Three weekends out from Breeders’ Cup and focus grows ever narrower. But the second Saturday of the Keeneland meet features a Breeders’ Cup sort of opportunity for 3-year-old turf fillies.
Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup
I could only rule one horse, Will Then, out of win contention, and she could instead run Saturday at Woodbine. It’s a good-looking renewal of the QE II.
Free Like a Girl will likely close out her fairy tale racing career in Saturday night’s $100,000 Magnolia at Delta Downs.
The $5,500 yearling purchase has earned $2.5 million in her career and is part of a field of eight for the seven-furlong race for fillies and mares bred in Louisiana.
“It’s kind of her last spot before the sale,” co-owner and trainer Chasey Deville-Pomier said.
Free Like a Girl is entered in a high-profile auction Nov. 3 at Fasig-Tipton in Lexington, Ky. The 6-year-old is listed as a racing or broodmare prospect for the fall mixed sale.
ARCADIA, Calif. – A gray gelding with a white tail, cantankerous attitude, and a rags-to-riches history marches toward the Breeders’ Cup Sprint by running in an unorthodox prep race Saturday at Santa Anita.
Lovesick Blues, who won a $12,500 maiden-claiming race at Golden Gate Fields long before he won a Grade 1 this summer at Del Mar, is favored Saturday in the $100,000 California Flag Handicap, a hillside turf sprint for California-breds.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – White Abarrio got serious Thursday morning at Gulfstream Park prepping for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Nov. 1 at Del Mar. The 2023 BC Classic winner zipped four furlongs in 45.94 seconds over a drying-out racetrack that was upgraded to fast after having been sealed and sloppy to start the morning.
Two juvenile fillies with vastly different racing backgrounds will meet in their fourth career starts in the $100,000 White Clay Creek Stakes at Delaware Park on Saturday.
Jumping the Gun will defend her home track for trainer Andy Simoff in the one-mile dirt route, which is restricted to 2-year-old fillies, while Dazzling Dame will run at her fourth venue in as many races for Brittany Russell.
The stallion rosters of many farms will be finalized in the weeks leading up to, or following, the Breeders’ Cup, but two major retirements for 2026 were confirmed on Wednesday.
Coolmore has announced that 2024 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and Eclipse Award divisional champion Sierra Leone will make his final start in this year’s Classic on Nov. 1 at Del Mar, before retiring to its Ashford Stud. Sierra Leone, by Gun Runner, will have his fee announced after his Classic defense attempt.
Bucchero covered a robust book of 192 mares in his second New York season after moving from Florida, according to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred. It is a rarity for a non-Kentucky stallion to break into the top 20 most active stallions.
Bucchero was the only stallion outside of Kentucky even in the top 50. The next is Ocala Stud’s Win Win Win, who covered 137 mares.
Young sire Tiz the Law covered 274 mares, narrowly ranking as the busiest stallion in North America, as The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred and foal crop estimates released Thursday showed continued contraction in the industry.
Two weeks after a commanding win in a Group 3 at seven furlongs at Newmarket Racecourse in England, the promising 2-year-old colt Distant Storm returns to the same course for a more prestigious race in Saturday’s Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes.
Distant Storm, trained by Charlie Appleby for Godolphin, was the 6-5 favorite in the Group 3 Tattersalls Stakes on Sept. 25, winning by 4 3/4 lengths from off the pace.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – New York trainer Miguel Clement and jockey Sahin Civaci teamed up with a couple of very live shippers last Saturday at Woodbine when Breath Away won the Grade 2 Dance Smartly before Tawny Port lost the Grade 1 Canadian International by a dirty nose.
They have the probable favorite in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Ontario Fashion with Gal in a Rush, who was supplemented to the six-furlong sprint for fillies and mares off a victory in the Grade 2 Presque Isle Downs Masters.
