OZONE PARK, N.Y. - In any other year, it would likely be an easy decision on which Breeders’ Cup race to run Locked.
But this year, one in which the Breeders’ Cup Classic field looks as deep as ever - arguably the deepest ever - the connections of Locked will bide their time before deciding whether to point him toward the $7 million Classic or the $1 million Dirt Mile. Both races are on Nov. 1 at Del Mar.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Straight No Chaser, the 2024 champion sprinter, is on schedule for a two-race fall campaign beginning with Sunday’s Grade 2 Santa Anita Sprint Championship before he is retired to stud at WinStar Farm in Kentucky.
The $200,000 Santa Anita Sprint Championship is a prep race for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar on Nov. 1. Straight No Chaser won those races in 2024 to clinch his title. On Sunday, trainer Dan Blacker said Straight No Chaser is on schedule for the same races.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Lovesick Blues will take a downhill detour on his path to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
After his $39.20 upset in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes on July 26 at Del Mar, plans called for Lovesick Blues to train into the BC Sprint three months later on Nov. 1 at Del Mar. Then trainer Librado Barocio reconsidered.
“The more I thought about it, it’s a long road, and if he’s going to be on his game (for the BC Sprint), I need to tighten him up a little bit,” Barocio said Sunday at Santa Anita. “I think I’ll run him down the hill.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – The decisive victory by Baeza in the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby on Saturday at Parx Racing has elevated the 3-year-old to the short list of contenders for the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic this fall at Del Mar.
Baeza, who earned a career-best 105 Beyer winning the Pennsylvania Derby by 2 1/4 lengths under jockey Hector Berrios, was scheduled to return to Santa Anita on Tuesday. If Baeza is up to it, trainer John Shirreffs will prepare him for the BC Classic.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Journalism, the multiple Grade 1 winner who ranks among the top 3-year-olds in the country, resumed serious training for the Breeders’ Cup Classic by working an easy half-mile Saturday morning at Santa Anita.
Winner of the Santa Anita Derby, Preakness Stakes and Haskell, runner-up in the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes and Pacific Classic, Journalism was timed in :48.20 for his solo workout after the 7:45 a.m. track renovation. Trainer Michael McCarthy was not looking for any more than Journalism gave.
Ag Bullet, the winner of the Grade 1 Jaipur Stakes at Saratoga in June and the Grade 2 Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf Sprint on Aug. 30 in her last two starts, will not race again until the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar on Nov. 1, trainer Richard Baltas said.
“We’ll freshen her and get her ready for Breeders’ Cup,” Baltas said on Friday.
This year’s BC Turf Sprint is likely to be Ag Bullet’s last start for owners Calvin Nguyen and Joey Tran. The 5-year-old mare is scheduled to be sold at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November mixed sale on Nov. 3, Baltas said.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Full Serrano, unraced since a victory in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile last November, cruised away from three rivals to win an allowance race at a mile at Del Mar on Monday, the start of a brief campaign designed for a return to a Breeders’ Cup race on Nov. 1.
Jockey Drayden Van Dyke will be suspended for two days on July 4 and 5 and fined $5,200 after dropping his appeal of more severe penalties issued last November for a whip violation in a winning ride aboard Soul of an Angel in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Del Mar.
The day after the win, Van Dyke was suspended three days and fined $15,600. He appealed the infraction but recently dropped the appeal, according to a ruling issued by Los Alamitos stewards last weekend.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Straight No Chaser, the champion sprinter of 2024, recently returned to trainer Dan Blacker’s stable at Santa Anita after mixed results in a two-race campaign in the Middle East earlier this year.
Straight No Chaser “has good energy and is bouncing around the barn,” Blacker said last weekend.
Long-range plans for Straight No Chaser include a potential start in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar on July 26 and the definite goal of an appearance in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar on Nov. 1.
The Breeders’ Cup will once again award incentives to runners in selected stakes races this year to drive entries to its dirt races, the organization announced on Friday.
The so-called “Dirt Dozen” will feature 12 stakes races throughout the lead-up to the Breeders’ Cup on Oct. 31-Nov. 1 at Del Mar that will award credits toward entry fees for the $2 million Distaff, the $2 million Sprint, the $2 million Juvenile, the $2 million Juvenile Fillies, the $1 million Filly and Mare Sprint, and the $1 million Dirt Mile.
