ARCADIA, Calif. – As with laundry, produce, and princes of Bel Air, the two trainers of this year’s top three contenders for the Breeders’ Cup Classic have decided that fresh is best.
Arrogate, Collected, and Gun Runner all will come into the $6 million Classic on Nov. 4 at Del Mar off layoffs of at least two months. If any of those three win, it will mark the third straight year the Classic will have been won by a horse trained in that fashion.
Trainer Mark Casse could be the “Mile Man” of this year’s Breeders’ Cup. He has candidates for all four championship races being run at the distance, including Awesome Slew for the $1 million Dirt Mile on Nov. 3 at Del Mar.
Casse also has World Approval on deck for the $2 million Mile on Nov. 4, while Flameaway could develop into a $1 million Juvenile Turf starter Nov. 3, and Wonder Gadot and/or Miss Mo Mentum could land in the $1 million Juvenile Fillies Turf the same day.
Among world-class races in France and New York and to a lesser extent California, the field for the $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf on Nov. 4 at Del Mar will be better known by Sunday evening.
Judging from very recent history, the results of the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Belmont Park on Saturday deserve as much respect as Sunday’s Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Chantilly, France, Europe’s top flat race with a purse of approximately $5.89 million.
Both Nero and St Patrick’s Day came into the summer at Del Mar with hopes of making the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile for trainer Bob Baffert, but the highly regarded pair both will miss the race, as neither has worked since his most recent start.
St Patrick’s Day, a full brother to 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, ran twice at Del Mar, with a victory on Sept. 2 following a second-place finish on Aug. 20.
“I’m going to hold off on him,” Baffert said. “He’s a bit immature.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Here come the 3-year-olds, just in time.
While the 5-year-old mares Stellar Wind and Forever Unbridled remain early favorites for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, the dwindling number of older fillies and mares has opened the door for the next generation.
Paradise Woods and Elate face older runners for the first time Saturday in Grade 1 races at Santa Anita and Belmont, trying to join Champagne Room, It Tiz Well, and Abel Tasman as leading 3-year-old contenders for the $2 million Distaff on Nov. 3 at Del Mar.
The group stakes winner Nyaleti, the unbeaten Gavota, and the stakes-placed Butterscotch are three leading contenders for Friday’s Group 2 Rockfel Stakes at Newmarket Racecourse in England, a race with implications for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Nov. 3 at Del Mar.
The winner of the $146,000 Rockfel Stakes at a straightaway seven furlongs receives a fees-paid berth in the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf at a mile.
The Rockfel has several contenders but lacks a heavy favorite.
As Breeders’ Cup season draws near, horsemen must look at the cards in their hand and decide how they’re going to play them.
For the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, Frank and Patricia Generazio hold a pair of potential aces in Pure Sensation and Disco Partner. The former won a major prep for the Turf Sprint in his most recent start, the Grade 3 Turf Monster Handicap at Parx Racing, while the latter set the world record for six furlongs on turf in the Grade 3 Jaipur Invitational Stakes earlier this year. Both are homebreds for the Generazios and are trained by Christophe Clement.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Fifty-three trainers have won two or more Breeders’ Cup races, and Buff Bradley is one of them. Bradley scored in 2012 and 2013 at Santa Anita with Groupie Doll in the BC Filly and Mare Sprint, pulling him even with Hall of Famers such as Charlie Whittingham, Leroy Jolley, and Nick Zito.
Such comparisons are not necessarily meaningful, sure, but that isn’t keeping Bradley from wanting to return to California this year with a Breeders’ Cup horse or two.
Five weeks out, the field for $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Del Mar still may need a few tweaks. The two final preps are set for the weekend of Oct. 7-8, and the first major defection was announced this week.
The likely Filly and Mare Sprint favorite Unique Bella continues to train forwardly to the Oct. 8 L.A. Woman at Santa Anita. Likewise for Finley’sluckycharm, who will look to further entrench herself as one of the top Filly and Mare Sprint contenders by prepping in the Oct. 7 Thoroughbred Club of America at Keeneland.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Arrogate looked like his old self at Santa Anita on Tuesday morning, when he went five furlongs in 59.40 seconds and galloped out with enthusiasm, with jockey Rafael Bejarano bringing him all the way around to the furlong pole - a full six furlongs after the work ended.
"That was good for him," trainer Bob Baffert said after the drill, the second for Arrogate since a brief freshening following his second-place finish in the Pacific Classic. "I can sleep tonight. He did it the right way."
