As under the radar as Mage was coming into the Kentucky Derby, it will be even more so when he runs in the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 4 at Santa Anita.
Coming out of a last-place finish in the Travers Stakes on Aug. 26, Mage has been mostly out of sight, out of mind since he returned to the Thoroughbred Training Center near Lexington, Ky., in early September.
The one certainty ahead of Monday’s pre-entry deadline for the Breeders’ Cup is that the newest kid on the block, the Juvenile Turf Sprint, should once again have an overflow field with an international cast. Since it was added to the Breeders’ Cup program in 2018, each edition has drawn a full field, with also-eligibles scratched off the program.
It was 10 years ago that a zippy gray mare became the first horse ever to win back-to-back editions of the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, at Santa Anita, no less. A decade later, the popular gray Caravel is headed to Santa Anita to attempt to add her name to the list of doubles, and will be one of several shades of gray in this starting gate.
Since the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint was added to the program in 2008, the two-time winners of the race are the mare Mizdirection in 2012 and 2013, and Stormy Liberal, who earned a divisional Eclipse Award, in 2017 and 2018.
Formal research studies suggest the COVID-19 pandemic warped people’s sense of time. Take the Summer Stakes, for instance. The race was run at Woodbine on Sept. 16, not long ago at all, but it feels like the winner, Carson’s Run, has been forgotten.
While Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf prep races subsequently have been run in New York, Kentucky, and California, Carson’s Run has quietly gone about his business at Saratoga, his daily training overseen by Miguel Clement, the son of and assistant to trainer Christophe Clement.
The Irish-bred colt Piz Badile has raced in Britain, France, and Ireland since his career began in the summer of 2021. Plans for the fall and winter call for a true world tour for the two-time minor stakes winner, beginning with the $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf on Nov. 4 at Santa Anita.
Trainer Donnacha O’Brien, the 25-year-old son of the famous trainer Aidan O’Brien, is hopeful that Piz Badile can race in the Middle East in early 2024, with races in Dubai, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia under consideration.
“We are hoping to go traveling with him,” Donnacha O’Brien said.
Two years ago, Loves Only You shipped from Japan to Southern California to capture the Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar. The victory wasn’t much of a surprise.
She was sent away at 4-1 after finishing third in the Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic, winning the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup in Hong Kong, and running a close second in the Group 2 Sapporo Kinen in her final prep.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Turf racing is winding down at the marathon Woodbine meet. High-priced $40,000 maidens combined with Ontario-sired maidens will get one last crack at the roomy main course in Friday’s fourth race going 1 1/16 miles.
Trainer Jonathan Thomas, who won with three of his last six Turfway-based runners at Woodbine, sends out unraced Enahm in the fourth. Enahm posted a mixture of fast and slow breezes over Turfway’s Tapeta before working a half-mile in 48.60 seconds from the gate here last Friday.
It’s been a bumper crop of 2-year-old fillies this season for trainer Todd Pletcher.
The first weekend in October he sent out Candied to win the Alcibiades at Keeneland, Scalable to a runner-up effort in the Chandelier at Santa Anita, and Life Talk to a third-place finish in the Frizette at Aqueduct.
The complexion of both Breeders’ Cup sprint divisions changed drastically last week when the star filly Echo Zulu was injured during a morning workout at Santa Anita.
Echo Zulu, expected to be pre-entered in both the Sprint and Filly and Mare Sprint, was breezing in company with stablemate Gunite when she suffered sesamoid fractures. She underwent surgery, is currently resting in California, and the hope is that she will become a broodmare once healthy.
There will be anxious moments next week for some owners with candidates for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Nov. 3 at Santa Anita.
Craig Bernick does not count himself among them.
The one-mile race is expected to have an oversubscribed field. Pre-entries close Monday. A panel of Breeders’ Cup officials will then chose 14 runners as the initial field, with the others placed on an also-eligible list. The pre-entry fields will be announced Oct. 25.
The list of 14 runners often changes before entries are taken, which this year will be on Oct. 30.
