ARCADIA, Calif. – As a young man growing up in Newmarket, England, around the turn of the millennium, Simon Callaghan devoted a Saturday evening each fall to watching the Breeders’ Cup races from various American racetracks.

“I was fascinated with the Breeders’ Cup,” Callaghan recalled last weekend outside his stable at Santa Anita. “It was an amazing spectacle.”

Watching the Breeders’ Cup unfold from venues such as Gulfstream Park, Churchill Downs, and Belmont Park in those years helped Callaghan determine that he wanted to be part of American racing.

ARCADIA, Calif. – A little later than expected, Bellafina, the expected favorite for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Churchill Downs on Nov. 2, had her final workout at Santa Anita on Thursday, going a half-mile in 47.40 seconds.

The workout was delayed by approximately 10 minutes to allow a horse ambulance to transport a horse off the track who had pulled up in the stretch while exercising.

:: BREEDERS’ CUP 2018: Pre-entries, odds, comments, and more

ARCADIA, Calif. – Sharp Samurai, who has won five stakes in the last 18 months, will miss the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3 because of illness, trainer Mark Glatt said on Thursday.

Sharp Samurai has been diagnosed with a throat infection and is undergoing treatment, Glatt said.

“He’s not going to run,” Glatt said. “You have to be 110 percent ready to run in those races.”

The illness was diagnosed last Saturday. Sharp Samurai was pre-entered for the BC Mile on Monday with the hope the illness would quickly subside.

There were four horses pre-entered on Wednesday in both the Breeders’ Cup Classic and the Dirt Mile, which led to some angst among trainers worried as to whether they’d get into the Classic. But the likely composition of the Classic field came into sharper focus on Thursday after Bravazo – one of that quartet – worked at Churchill Downs and then was declared as certain for the Dirt Mile.

“That’s where we’re headed,” D. Wayne Lukas, who trains Bravazo, said after Bravazo worked five furlongs in 59.80 seconds, the fastest time of 20 works at the distance.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With rain in the local forecast for Friday, a few Breeders’ Cup hopefuls were out for their final pre-race works a day earlier than planned Thursday over a fast track at Churchill Downs.

In all, five BC runners were on clocker John Nichols’s tab, most of them well before dawn and under the bright Churchill lights. First to go was Bravazo (Dirt Mile), who went five furlongs in 59.80 seconds for Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas.

Bravazo worked worked five furlongs in 59.80 seconds Thursday morning at Churchill Downs, after which his trainer, D. Wayne Lukas, said he would definitely run in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile and not the Classic. Both races are Nov. 3 at Churchill Downs, and Bravazo was pre-entered in both on Wednesday, with the Dirt Mile listed as his preference.

"That's where we're headed," Lukas said.

Lukas said Luis Contreras has the mount.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Some handicapping thoughts and statistics after a night spent analyzing the past performances of horses pre-entered in the Breeders’ Cup:

Roy H over Imperial Hint

As fast and classy as he is, Imperial Hint could be vulnerable on the Churchill Downs main track. He has twice gone unplaced in as many trips beneath the twin spires, running 12th in the Pat Day Mile on a fast track in 2016 and then sixth this year in the Churchill Downs Stakes at seven furlongs on a sloppy surface.

Undefeated colts from two of the most powerful barns in the sport headline the 15 horses pre-entered in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, to be run Nov. 2 at Churchill Downs.

Since his upset victory in the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar, Talismanic has won twice in six starts in three countries.

He was second in the Hong Kong Vase last December, won stakes in France in spring and summer, and ran ninth in the Dubai World Cup on dirt in March and 13th in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in Paris on Oct. 7.

Catalina Cruiser will put a perfect race record on the line when he starts as the probable favorite in the Grade 1, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Nov. 3, but the field he will face is in flux with 10 of the 16 horses pre-entered Monday also pre-entered in a second Breeders’ Cup race.