ELMONT, N.Y. – By the Moon put the finishing touches on her major preparations for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint by working five furlongs in 1:00.68 on Monday morning over the Belmont Park main track.
Exercises rider Tomesh Singh never moved his hands on By the Moon as she cruised through an opening three furlongs in 36.00 seconds and got her final quarter in 24.68. She galloped out six furlongs in 1:14.93.
“She breezed very good, I was happy with her,” Singh said.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Christophe Clement has been snakebit when it comes to the Breeders’ Cup, having failed to win a race from his 32 starters, but with half of those runners finishing in the top four, including five seconds.
Clement, who prefers to accentuate the positive, will be bringing three horses to Del Mar for this year’s Breeders’ Cup on Nov. 3-4, and he’s quite confident the trio will give a solid account of themselves. Two of those runners put in their final workouts Monday at Belmont Park.
BELMONT PARK MONDAY
WEATHER: FOGGY
TRACK: FAST
TEMP.: 57
By Mike Welsch
ELMONT, N.Y. – Class was in session Monday morning at Belmont Park for Best Performance, with professors Christophe Clement and Joel Rosario designing a workout to help school the multiple graded stakes-placed 2-year-old for her upcoming assignment in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – When Kentucky horsemen arrive in the Del Mar stable area in the coming days and see the familiar face of Steve Hargrave, they might think they took a wrong turn somewhere.
Hargrave, director of backside operations at Churchill Downs, was hired by Breeders’ Cup Ltd. to serve in a similar capacity for the upcoming championships in Southern California. Hargrave also worked the 2015 BC at Keeneland “but this is my first one outside of Kentucky,” he said. He arrived Friday in Del Mar.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Cambodia, the winner of two Grade 2 stakes for fillies and mares on turf at Del Mar this summer, was the most prominent of nine Breeders’ Cup candidates to work on turf at Santa Anita on Sunday.
Trained by Tom Proctor for Don Robinson, Cambodia worked five furlongs in 1:00 with temporary rails set midway out on the turf course. Cambodia has not raced since winning the John C. Mabee Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf Sept. 2. Earlier at the Del Mar summer meeting, Cambodia won the Yellow Ribbon Stakes.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Virtually all of the New York-based horses preparing for the Breeders’ Cup are based at Belmont Park. There is one, however, who is eight miles away, preparing in what is currently a tranquil environment at Aqueduct.
Lady Ivanka, the winner of the Grade 1 Spinaway at Saratoga on Sept. 2, has been based at Aqueduct since it reopened Sept. 18. On Sunday, Lady Ivanka had her fifth workout over the main track, breezing five furlongs in 1:01.06 for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar on Nov. 4.
Belmont Park
Track: Fast
Weather: Clear
Temp.: 56
ELMONT, N.Y. – Only a handful of potential Breeders’ Cup starters worked here Sunday on another picture-perfect morning, a list topped by turf specialists Annals of Time and War Flag, prepping for the Mile and Filly and Mare Turf.
Temperatures were in the high 40s at dawn but climbed higher by the time the Breeders’ Cup workout action began immediately after the renovation break on the main track before continuing over on the turf course several minutes later.
Heart to Heart is a nine-time graded stakes winner and millionaire, but one goal has been elusive. The horse will be seeking his first Grade 1 victory as a supplemental entry to the Breeders’ Cup Mile.
“I’d be elated,” said trainer Brian Lynch after sending out Heart to Heart and Grade 1-winning stablemate Oscar Performance, bound for the Breeders’ Cup Turf, for solo works over the Keeneland turf course Sunday. “I’d lift the roof off that grandstand at Del Mar.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Kentucky Oaks winner Abel Tasman worked seven furlongs from the gate in 1:25.60 on Sunday morning at Santa Anita and had to avoid a horse who went wrong just in front of her shortly after she broke from the gate.
She was one of more than a dozen horses who worked on the main track Sunday in preparation for the Breeders’ Cup on Nov. 3-4 at Del Mar. Abel Tasman is heading to the Distaff on Nov. 3, when she will face older runners.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Led by Collected, who will be trying to seize Horse of the Year and champion older male on dirt with a win in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, more than a dozen horses with Breeders’ Cup aspirations turned in key workouts on Saturday morning at Santa Anita for the Breeders’ Cup races Nov. 3-4 at Del Mar.
