ARCADIA, Calif. – Metaboss, a longshot entrant in Saturday’s $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita, was retired on Wednesday after sustaining a sesamoid injury while galloping on the turf course, trainer Phil D’Amato said.

Metaboss was pulled up and vanned back to D’Amato’s stable. The diagnosis was made within an hour.

“He’s fractured a piece of his right sesamoid,” D’Amato said. “He’ll have a long life ahead of him, but he won’t be racing anymore. It’s not a life-threatening injury, but it is career-ending.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – For British trainer Michael Stoute, Ulysses is a most unlikely entrant in Saturday’s $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita. Ulysses was second in the Group 3 Winter Hill Stakes at Windsor Racecourse in England on Aug. 27 in his most recent start, a far cry from the established form of Stoute’s past winners of the BC Turf.

Stoute has won the race four times, with Pilsudski in 1996, Kalanisi in 2000, and Conduit in 2008 and 2009.

Tommy Massis has been trying to beat the track his whole life. Massis, last year's winner of the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge, will be defending his title this Friday and Saturday in person at Santa Anita Park.

ARCADIA, Calif. – David Hofmans, trying to pull off one of the great training achievements in Breeders’ Cup history, gave Melatonin a sharp final work Wednesday morning at Santa Anita in preparation for the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday.

ARCADIA, Calif. – If there were wagering on which jockey will earn the Bill Shoemaker Award for outstanding rider at the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita, Mike Smith would have to be considered the favorite. The all-time winningest jockey in Breeders’ Cup history (22 wins, $28.9 million in mount earnings), Smith has such top horses as Songbird, Arrogate, and Masochistic among his nine BC rides.

Key contenders

MADE YOU LOOK, by More than Ready

Last 3 Beyers: 75-72-59

◗ This is a case where Beyer Speed Figures might not tell the whole tale: No way he could clock a fast final time in the slow-paced With Anticipation, and to his credit, he was able to sit in the pocket behind such a slow pace while coming out of sprints.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The youngest trainer with a starter in the Breeders’ Cup races at Santa Anita this week is 23, in the midst of a wildly successful rookie year, and has a familiar mentor who is at the pinnacle of the sport.

Last Saturday at Belmont Park, Jose Ortiz won both divisions of a maiden race for 2-year-olds, and the horse he wasn’t even scheduled to ride may turn out to be racing’s next big star.

That’s the type of year it has been for Ortiz, who in 2016 has escaped the shadow of his older brother Irad, and like Takaful – the aforementioned 2-year-old colt whom Ortiz picked up at the draw – has emerged as potentially racing’s next big riding star.

TimeformUS creates a Pace Projector for most races in North America, including the Breeders’ Cup. Deploying TimeformUS Pace Figures in the service of a battle-hardened, exhaustively tested algorithm, and modified up to post time as scratches warrant, the Pace Projector predicts both the position of each horse at the official first call of the race and the likelihood that the pace will be extreme, be it slow or fast, and thereby favoring one running style over another.

ARCADIA, Calif. – “What do you think of the Europeans?” American trainers with horses in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf want to know. The question comes with equal parts curiosity, trepidation, and hope.

The Europeans, directly and indirectly, have owned the Juvenile Turf during its nine-year existence, but their raiding party might not be quite up to par this year.

Horses shipped from overseas straight to the Juvenile Turf have won six times. Hootenanny won in 2014 after having raced in France and England.