Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez has been booked to ride the Grade 1 winner Formidable Man in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar on Nov. 1.
The decision was made earlier this week, trainer Michael McCarthy said. Umberto Rispoli has ridden Formidable Man in his last eight starts, a span that includes six stakes wins, but is booked to ride Johannes, an eight-time stakes winner.
With the mount open on Formidable Man, McCarthy described employing Velazquez as a “no-brainer.”
Richard Mandella’s chances in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint grew even stronger last weekend, leading him back to the drawing board as the championship event draws closer. The trainer has been preparing Kopion, the likely favorite, for the race since August, but with Tamara back in the fold, he said that he will cross-enter Kopion in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint to give himself the option of splitting the contenders.
Full Serrano will attempt to join Goldencents and Cody’s Wish in the history books as a two-time winner of the Grade 1, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Nov. 1 at Del Mar. He’s coming up to the race as well as he did when he won the 2024 edition with a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 104.
“I think he’s right where he was last year,” said John Sadler, who trains Full Serrano for Hronis Racing. “I don’t see any drop-off on him. He’s in good shape and strong.”
Forty years after running its first horse in a Breeders’ Cup race and 10 years after running its most recent, Centennial Farms will be back with a contender in the championship event when Antiquarian starts in the $7 million Classic on Nov. 1 at Del Mar.
Napoleon Solo, the dominant 6 1/2-length winner of last Saturday’s Grade 1 Champagne Stakes at Aqueduct, will bypass the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Oct. 31 at Del Mar, be put away for the season, and point to a 3-year-old campaign, trainer Chad Summers said Wednesday.
“He ran really fast and really hard and we feel it’s the fair thing to do,” said Summers, who trains Napoleon Solo for Al Gold. “It wasn’t an easy decision but at the same they went six furlongs in 1:07.88, just missed Kelly Kip’s [six-furlong] track record, and ran the fourth fastest Champagne.
The two-time European Group 1 winner Goliath is scheduled to start in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 1. It will be an expensive venture.
To start in the BC Turf at 1 1/2 miles, the richest grass race in the United States, Goliath must be made eligible to the Breeders’ Cup program with a $200,000 supplemental fee by Oct. 20, the day pre-entries are due. The pre-entry and entry fees add another $125,000.
Despite a perfect record in three starts, Ultimate Love may be overlooked in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Oct. 31 at Del Mar, if given a chance in the division’s richest race of the year.
Ultimate Love did not start in a leading graded stakes in the division at Aqueduct, Keeneland, or Santa Anita last weekend. She is not a high-profile runner from Europe.
La Wally is an improving sort who will head into the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Oct. 31 at Del Mar off a runner-up finish to the race’s early favorite, Explora.
The pair met in the Oak Leaf last Saturday at Santa Anita.
“We thought she ran well,” said Mark Glatt, who trains La Wally for Muir Hut Stables. “We didn’t think she had the best trip in the world and so we were a little bit disappointed with it, but she came back well and at the moment we are going to point towards the Breeders’ Cup.”
At age 9, you’d expect a racehorse, particularly one as accomplished as Khaadem, to take raceday activities calmly in stride, old hat, perhaps setting a good example for the younger horses in the field.
Hardly. Khaadem is quirky, to put it mildly. The mercurial gelding is known to act up in the paddock, to be bad at the starting gate, and generally to keep his handlers on their toes.
“He’s been a strange character, but a lovable one,” trainer Charlie Hills said.
The prep races are done for the vast majority of candidates for the 2025 Breeders’ Cup. But not for Lovesick Blues, whose trainer Librado Barocio is planning on using a 6 1/2-furlong statebred handicap on the downhill turf course at Santa Anita on Saturday as a stepping-stone to the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
