ELMONT, N.Y. – Eight years ago, trainer Steve Asmussen won the Grade 1 Frizette Stakes at Belmont Park with My Miss Aurelia, who came back to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Churchill Downs and become the champion 2-year-old filly of 2011.
Asmussen will try to complete that same double with Wicked Whisper, who on Sunday won the Grade 1, $400,000 Frizette by 2 3/4 lengths to earn her spot in the starting gate for the $2 million Juvenile Fillies on Nov. at Santa Anita.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown knows anything can happen in a horse race, but he can’t help but be confident in Sistercharlie’s chances to repeat in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf on Nov. 2 at Santa Anita.
MIAMI – Brian Cohen, president of Arindel, has confirmed that Onyx is a candidate for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf if she is able to get into what is expected to be a full field on Nov. 1 at Santa Anita.
Onyx is perfect in three starts on grass, including a three-length victory in the Our Dear Peggy Stakes at Gulfstream on Sept. 28. She earned a career-high 72 Beyer Speed Figure for that effort, which would put her right in the mix with the majority of the leading U.S. candidates for the event.
MIAMI – After Timmy M. finished an unlucky second in the Bears Den Stakes on Sept. 21 at Gulfstream Park, trainer Joe Orseno was originally planning on just waiting for the next turf stakes for 3-year-olds at Gulfstream Park West for him. Instead, Orseno opted to shoot for what should be an easier spot Thursday, wheeling Timmy M. back in three weeks for a $45,000 entry-level allowance at 7 1/2 furlongs on the grass.
ARCADIA, Calif. – From a $40,000 claimer in February to a Grade 3 winner Saturday, Lady Ninja has had a quite transformation this year.
After winning Saturday’s Grade 3 L.A. Woman Stakes at Santa Anita, Lady Ninja is being strongly considered for the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint here at seven furlongs on Nov. 2.
“I think she can do seven-eighths and I think she’s an improving horse,” trainer Richard Baltas said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – At least four runners from Saturday’s Grade 2 City of Hope Mile on turf at Santa Anita are hopefuls for the Breeders’ Cup Mile here Nov. 2 – race winner True Valour, Prince Earl, Catapult, and Bolo.
If the race oversubscribes when pre-entries are taken Oct. 21, a Breeders’ Cup selection committee will have the final say as to how many of them are part of the field of 14.
Bolo, who finished 10th of 11 in the City of Hope Mile, is guaranteed a berth, having won the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile here in May.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Grade 1 Woodbine Mile winner El Tormenta is on track to make his next start in the Grade 1, $2 million Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita on Nov. 2, and trainer Gail Cox said the 4-year-old son of Stormy Atlantic would do most of his prep work here at his home track.
“I am more comfortable having his last breeze here,” she said. “If you get bad weather, we have the main track and we have dirt. He most often breezes on the dirt anyways. That’s the way I felt comfortable doing it.”
LEXINGTON, Ky. – How can any one horse be the favorite in the Jessamine Stakes?
Nearly half the capacity field of 2-year-old fillies are within a whisper of each other in regard to a career-high Beyer Speed Figure, one of numerous variables that will make for a wide-open tote board when the Grade 2, $200,000 Jessamine is run Wednesday as the 10th and last Win and You’re In event of the Keeneland fall meet.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Brendan Walsh was making his way through the Keeneland crowd Sunday, minutes after Vitalogy had come up a neck shy of catching Peace Achieved in the Dixiana Bourbon Stakes.
He stopped to give a weary smile and a mild complaint.
“Nearly a perfect weekend,” said Walsh, the trainer of Vitalogy.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown still hasn’t decided in which Breeders’ Cup race he plans to run Bricks and Mortar. If he elects for the Mile, one of the main competitors could come from Brown’s own barn.
Uni, who set a course record winning Saturday’s Grade 1 First Lady at Keeneland – she ran a mile in 1:32.87 – is likely to be supplemented to the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Mile, co-owner Michael Dubb said Sunday at Belmont Park. The supplemental fee would be $100,000 according to a Breeders’ Cup spokesperson.
