ELMONT, N.Y. – It is not just on a hope and a prayer that trainer Jeremiah Englehart is running Aveenu Malcainu in Saturday’s $500,000 Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park. From what Englehart has seen, he believes the New York-bred rightly belongs in the Grade 1 race for 2-year-olds.
“He doesn’t strike me as a horse that’s just a New York-bred, for some reason,” Englehart said. “He seems like he’s more than that.”
Gato Del Oro, who ran the two best races of his career at Del Mar before shipping to Remington Park and finishing third in last month’s Oklahoma Derby, is a candidate for the Grade 1, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, trainer Richard Baltas said Wednesday. The race is Nov. 3 at Del Mar.
“Right now, we’re pointing for that, hoping he’ll draw in,” Baltas said.
Mondialiste might be an Irish-bred, England-based horse, but his two most important wins, in the 2015 Woodbine Mile and the 2016 Arlington Million, have come in North America. The overseas strategy has worked out so well that Mondialiste’s trainer, David O’Meara, has not just Mondialiste in Kentucky this week for the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile, but also a second horse for the race, Suedois.
The two English shippers are among 14 entered in the Shadwell, a Win and You’re In race for the Breeders’ Cup Mile, as well as the last major North American prep for the race.
There’s a saying around the barn of trainer Mark Casse that some horses have too much talent not to be good at something. The trick is figuring out their niche.
Solving that puzzle helped take Holding Gold from a listed stakes-level horse in 2016 to a contender for this year’s Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.
The 4-year-old Lonhro gelding ran well for Casse and owner Charlotte Weber of Live Oak Plantation last year, winning the Quick Call Stakes at Saratoga, but the trainer was left at the end of his campaign still trying to fully figure him out.
A growing collection of wins in Grade 2 turf marathons this year has put Itsinthepost on course for the $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 4 – and the greatest test of his career.
Sunday, Itisinthepost won the Grade 2 John Henry Turf Championship, displaying a turn of foot that has defined his recent races. Itsinthepost closed from fourth to win by a head over Prime Attraction.
“I’ve been around a long time,” said owner Jed Cohen. “You don’t see many as confident as he is. He gives you his all every time.”
To be assured a start in the Breeders’ Cup, One Fast Broad is in a virtual must-win situation in Monday’s $100,000 Surfer Girl Stakes at Santa Anita.
A victory or a narrow loss are the only results that owner-trainer Mick Ruis says will convince him to start One Fast Broad in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Nov. 3 at Del Mar.
“If she wins, for sure we’ll put her in there,” he said. “We’ll see if she runs second. She’s got to be first or second to think about it.”
On Sunday, trainer John Gosden was the talk of the racing world after Enable, the 3-year-old filly he trains for Khalid Abdullah, won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Enable, judging from her trainer’s remarks, won’t be coming to Del Mar for the Breeders’ Cup, but a Gosden winner last Saturday in England, Roaring Lion, might well be among the favorites for the BC Juvenile Turf.
The final two Win and You’re In qualifiers for the Nov. 4 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf are this weekend, with Keeneland staging the Grade 1 First Lady on Saturday and Belmont following on Sunday with the Grade 1 Flower Bowl.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Stellar Wind remains favored for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, but not by much. In fact, the Distaff, to be run Nov. 3 at Del Mar, became a lot more competitive following decisive victories Sept. 30 by resurgent 3-year-olds Elate and Paradise Woods.
Elate powered to an 8 1/4-length score in the Grade 1 Beldame at Belmont Park, her second straight Grade 1 romp. Her early Distaff odds subsequently were trimmed by Daily Racing Form. Elate is 4-1 second choice; Stellar Wind is 7-2.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Om, second by a nose in the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint and third in the Grade 3 Eddie D Stakes at Santa Anita on Sept. 29, will be pointed to the Breeders’ Cup Mile on turf Nov. 4 at Del Mar, trainer Dan Hendricks said.
Hendricks said he consulted with owner K.B. Sareen last weekend to discuss plans.
“He said I can go for the BC Mile,” Hendricks said. “We’ll look at it in a few weeks.”
