Bolt d’Oro, by Medaglia d’Oro
Last 3 Beyers: 100-85-77
* Has won all three of his starts, including a 7 3/4-length victory in the Grade 1 FrontRunner at Santa Anita for which owner-trainer Mick Ruis said the horse was only 90 percent fit.
* Two of his victories have come at Del Mar.
* Though he broke a step slowly in his first two starts, he was into the race from the outset in the FrontRunner.
* Breezed very well Sunday at Santa Anita.
LADY AURELIA, by Scat Daddy
Last 3 Beyers: 97-N/A-N/A
* Has won 5 of 7 career starts, is undefeated in the U.S., and undefeated when racing with Lasix, as she will again in the Turf Sprint.
* She will reunite with John Velazquez, with whom she is perfect in two starts, including in the Giant’s Causeway at Keeneland earlier this year.
:: BREEDERS’ CUP 2017: Fields, odds, comments, and more
MARSHA, by Acclamation
DEL MAR, Calif. – They are here in force, the Europeans, and if history is a guide, they’ll win at least one Breeders’ Cup race this weekend.
Every year since 2010, there has been at least one and as many as five (2013) overseas-based Breeders’ Cup winners. They’re not always the obvious horses, either. Karakontie, the lone 2014 winner, scored at 30-1 and since then the Euro winners went off at odds of 7-1, 6-1, 8-1, and 7-2. Who will it be this year? Let’s take a look at their Saturday chances.
TURF SPRINT
DEL MAR, California – A young man from overseas named Billy Garritty walked between barns on the Del Mar backstretch Tuesday morning. An hour earlier he’d sat on the back of Ribchester for the first time as Europe’s top miler of 2017 took an easy turn around the dirt track here.
“He was bouncing out there,” Garritty said. “Full of life.”
Key contenders in the Breeders' Cup Turf.
Highland Reel, by Galileo
* The winner of this race in 2016, Highland Reel won consecutive Group 1 races in England in June, but has been beaten in his last two starts.
* Highland Reel was third by 7 1/4 lengths in the Group 1 Champion Stakes on Oct. 21 at Ascot, but the soft turf was probably not to his liking.
* He has performed much better on firm turf, conditions that should be present Saturday.
DEL MAR, Calif. – A year after Lady Eli fell a nose shy of writing a fairy-tale ending to her remarkable comeback story, she gets a chance to flip the script in Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar.
Seemingly at the top of her game, Lady Eli will be favored to win the race that eluded her last year and clinch an Eclipse Award that has eluded her for her entire career.
“I don’t think there’s a horse on the entire card this weekend that deserves an Eclipse Award more than her,” Chad Brown, Lady Eli’s trainer, said Wednesday.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Bob Baffert is the only trainer to have won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint back to back with the same horse, turning the trick with Midnight Lute in 2007 and 2008. On Saturday, Baffert will be favored to do it again, when he sends out Drefong in defense of his win last year in the $1.5 million Sprint.
DEL MAR, Calif. – It shouldn’t take long at all for the Breeders’ Cup crowd and a worldwide television audience to start getting into an upbeat rhythm Saturday.
The first of nine straight Breeders’ Cup events, the $2 million Juvenile Fillies, might well be one of the deepest races on the program and will set the tone for an unforgettable day.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Only three times in the last time 19 years has the favorite won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. This year’s favorite, Bolt d’Oro, not only has proven to be by far the fastest horse in his division but has the added benefit of owning a distinct home-field advantage over his competition in Saturday’s 34th renewal of the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Del Mar.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The surprise withdrawal of Ulysses on Friday evening from Saturday’s $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar has left the nation’s richest turf race as a showdown between Beach Patrol of New York and Highland Reel of Ireland, with a strong supporting cast.
Ulysses, who was scratched on veterinarian’s advice, was the 7-2 favorite on the morning-line. The role of favorite may go to Beach Patrol on the strength of consecutive Grade 1 wins in his last two starts – the Arlington Million in August and the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Belmont Park on Sept. 30.
