The leading 3-year-old grass runner in the United States may be the horse to catch in the $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf on Nov. 4 at Del Mar.

Oscar Performance, who won consecutive Grade 1 races for 3-year-olds in the Belmont Derby in July and the Secretariat Stakes at Arlington Park in August, may set the pace in the BC Turf, the nation’s richest grass race.

Trained by Brian Lynch for John and Jerry Amerman, Oscar Performance has won from the front and as a stalker. Lynch said Wednesday that jockey Jose Ortiz is likely to use those tactics in the BC Turf at 1 1/2 miles.

Best Performance caught trainer Christophe Clement’s eye in the first months of the year, well before the Fasig-Tipton March sale of 2-year-olds in training.

The filly was being prepared for the sale at Payson Park in Florida, where Clement’s stable spends the winter. At the sale, West Point Thoroughbreds bought Best Performance for $300,000 and sent her to Clement.

Seven months later, Clement is preparing Best Performance for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar for owners West Point Thoroughbreds, Tango Uniform Racing, and Robert Masiello.

ARCADIA, Calif. – There were no major surprises when pre-entries for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint were released Wednesday. Unique Bella, the once-beaten filly whose sharp return in the L.A. Woman earlier this month cemented her status as a solid favorite, heads a full field of 14 pre-entered for the seven-furlong race Nov. 4 at Del Mar.

It would be fair to call the 16 horses pre-entered in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint on Nov. 4 at Del Mar an eclectic group. The runners pointed to the five-furlong race range from a past Turf Sprint winner to a horse coming in off a claim.

Wonder Gadot, who is owned by film executive Gary Barber, is named for Wonder Woman and for the leading lady of the summer blockbuster, Gal Gadot.

The namesake filly will look to turn in her own blockbuster performance as she steps out of her genre, making her first start on dirt in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 4 at Del Mar. Wonder Gadot was third in the Grade 1 Natalma Stakes on the Woodbine turf, beaten less than a length, before rolling by six in the Grade 3 Mazarine Stakes on Tapeta.

A year after a stirring stretch run in which the British invader Queen’s Trust edged the American Lady Eli by a nose to win the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, they are set for a rematch as part of a full field expected for the Grade 1, $2 million Filly and Mare Turf on Nov. 4 at Del Mar. The two were among 18 pre-entries announced for the race Wednesday.

Stellar Wind will welcome a fair chance at the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, just this once, in her third and final attempt.

What will it take?

“Good break, good trip,” trainer John Sadler said.

Simple enough, but those elements were missing when Stellar Wind finished second with an eventful trip in the 2015 Distaff and fourth after breaking slowly in 2016.

Third time the charm?

:: BREEDERS’ CUP 2017: Pre-entries, odds, comments, and more

DEL MAR, Calif. – An epic showdown for Horse of the Year in a Breeders’ Cup Classic field that includes the two top-ranked dirt horses in the world highlights the 34th Breeders’ Cup, a two-day, 13-race extravaganza Nov. 3-4 at Del Mar that drew a total of 187 individual horses as pre-entries, the Breeders’ Cup announced Wednesday.

Arrogate and Gun Runner, the top two dirt horses in the world, were one-two in the Dubai World Cup in March, and they will take their rivalry from the desert to the sea in the first Breeders’ Cup ever held here at Del Mar.

ARCADIA, Calif. – It’s on.

The showdown between Gun Runner and Arrogate in the Breeders’ Cup Classic is shaping up as an epic battle based on the way both worked Monday at Santa Anita in their penultimate drills for the Nov. 4 race at Del Mar.

They, along with the likes of Collected and West Coast, were among those pre-entered Monday for the Classic, which will determine Horse of the Year, but they are undoubtedly the top two betting choices in the race, and both appear to be heading into the race the right way.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Caledonia Road, runner-up to Separationofpowers in the Grade 1 Frizette, will run in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 4 at Del Mar, trainer Ralph Nicks confirmed Sunday.

Nicks said Mike Smith, the winningest rider in Breeders’ Cup history, has the mount.

Caledonia Road, a daughter of Quality Road, made her first two starts for Luke Paiement’s Zoom and Fish Stable and Charlie Spiring. They have sold a third of Caledonia Road to the Newtown Anner Stud of Maurice and Samantha Regan.