ARCADIA, Calif. – Covfefe emerged from her victory in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint in good shape and was scheduled to be back in her stall at Churchill Downs in Kentucky sometime around noon Eastern following an equine charter flight early Sunday, according to Brad Cox, who trains the 3-year-old filly for LNJ Foxwoods.
“She came out of it great,” Cox said early Sunday. “We loaded her this morning at 2 a.m. (Pacific). She’s on her way home.”
ARCADIA, Calif. - An outstanding weekend of racing came to a tragic end early Saturday evening at Santa Anita when Mongolian Groom suffered a catastrophic injury to his left hind leg during the running of the Breeders’ Cup Classic and was subsequently euthanized.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Though he was near the top of the national leaderboard in both wins and purse money won for the year, jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. – the reigning Eclipse Award winning jockey – felt his business had slowed down this fall.
At the Belmont Park fall meet – one that he led all riders in wins for five consecutive years – Ortiz won just 20 races, ninth in the standings. While his upper tier business was solid, his day-to-day business was not.
Total wagering on the 14 Breeders’ Cup races held on Friday and Saturday at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif., set a record for the fourth year in a row, increasing nearly 12 percent over the total amount bet last year on a 14-race card at Churchill Downs in Louisville, according to charts of the races.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Here are the available mutuel payoffs that ended with the Breeders’ Cup Classic, the 12th and last race Saturday at Santa Anita:
1st: VINO ROSSO (No. 10), $11.20, $5.80, $4.00 ($2 payoffs)
2nd: McKINZIE (8), $4.80, $3.60
3rd: HIGHER POWER (7), $6.00
4th: ELATE (6)
5th: MATH WIZARD (1)
$2 exacta (10-8): $47.60
$1 trifecta (10-8-7): $197.00
$.10 superfecta (10-8-7-6): $121.30
$.50 super high five jackpot (mandatory payout) (10-8-7-6-1), $7,181.40
$1 Daily Double (R11-12) (9-10), $12.80
ARCADIA, Calif. – There were toasts Saturday night at Santa Anita. To the victors of the Breeders’ Cup Classic and, sadly, the fallen. Raise a glass of wine, red preferably, to Vino Rosso and Mongolian Groom, who, respectively, ran the best race, and the last race, of their lives on Saturday.
ARCADIA, Calif. - There were four leaders in the final quarter-mile of Saturday’s Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf. The horse who led at the wire may be the finest runner in the country this year.
Bricks and Mortar, unbeaten in six starts, caught stretch leader United in the final sixteenth to win the 1 1/2-mile race by a head in his first start at the distance. The $4 million BC Turf was the final start for Bricks and Mortar, who is scheduled to go to stud in Japan in 2020.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Stick around long enough and dreams do come true.
It happened Saturday at Santa Anita, where three veterans – horse, jockey and trainer –scored the biggest wins of their careers in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
Blue Prize, a 6-year-old mare likely making the final start of her career, got first run over favorite Midnight Bisou to post a $19.80 surprise under 48-year-old jockey Joe Bravo for 59-year-old trainer Ignacio Correas.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Uni’s petite chestnut-coated body is the size of a deer, but this mare kicks like a mule. Saturday, in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Mile, she launched herself into the race past the three-furlong pole, rushed up to fellow female Got Stormy, and comfortably outkicked her to give trainer Chad Brown his 14th Breeders’ Cup winner but first in the Mile.
Got Stormy ran a strong race, a winning race, and capped off an exciting all-female exacta, but in the final furlong she was no match for Uni’s fleet, relentless run.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Mitole ended his career like the true champion he is, wearing down a loose on the lead Shancelot to register a 1 1/4-length victory in Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Santa Anita.
Mitole, who is certain to be voted Sprint champion for 2019, remains in the conversation for Horse of the Year honors. He is scheduled to stand stud next season at Spendthrift Farm.
