ARCADIA, Calif. – A showdown between California Chrome and Arrogate in the $6 million Classic on Saturday and an unprecedented match-up between champions Beholder, Songbird, and Stellar Wind in the $2 million Distaff on Friday highlight 13 Breeders’ Cup races that will be run on Friday and Saturday at Santa Anita, and for which posts were drawn on Monday.

California Chrome and Arrogate top a field of 10 entered in the Classic, the last and richest of the 13 races, nine of which are Saturday, four on Friday.

Santa Anita
Main track: Fast
Turf: Firm
Weather: Clear
Temp. 67

ARCADIA, Calif. – Trainer Bob Baffert and his Hall of Fame colleague Bill Mott should have been all smiles at the end of Monday’s training session at Santa Anita. They sent out a total of six Breeders’ Cup contenders between them who turned in impressive final workouts for Saturday races.

In terms of their racing accomplishments, turf specialist Tepin and main-track runner Stellar Wind don’t have much in common beyond their Eclipse Awards. But the two actually share a common ancestor in the influential broodmare Gallant Nurse.

ARCADIA, Calif. – When the English jockey Harry Bentley stepped off the plane Sunday at LAX, it was onto terra incognita. Not only has Bentley never ridden a race in this country, he had not even been here until this week.

Bentley rides Limato on Saturday in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, and it is fair to wonder if a young English rider will be disadvantaged at Santa Anita, which has a turf course unlike any in Europe. But Bentley has riding experience far beyond Europe that might help compensate for his lack of familiarity with North American-style racing.

Win or lose, several horses at the Breeders’ Cup will make a bit of bloodstock history when they load into the starting gate.

Four broodmares will be represented by multiple starters this weekend, and several other mares who have previously produced starters in American racing’s major season-ending event will be represented by their second or third career starters. Currently, 154 mares have produced multiple Breeders’ Cup starters; by no means a small group but still a selective one, considering that there have been 3,390 individual starters since the event’s inception in 1984.

ELMONT, N.Y. – For most of the year, trainer Chad Brown has been too busy moving forward to take time to look back. But as interest increased in Lady Eli’s remarkable return to Grade 1 form after her battle with life-threatening laminitis, Brown has begun thinking about where his filly is and where she’s been.

At this time last year, Lady Eli was on a farm in Kentucky getting some paddock time while on the upswing from laminitis. The illness arose after she stepped on a nail while walking back to her barn following a victory in the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks on July 4, 2015.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita officials are hopeful that the Breeders’ Cup races Friday and Saturday will draw at least 100,000 fans for the two days.

“The weather looks right,” said track senior vice president Joe Morris. “The presales are strong. We should be there.”

Morris said approximately 35,000 people are expected to attend Friday’s program, while Saturday’s attendance is predicted to reach 65,000.

“We could get close to 70,000,” Morris said.

There was nothing unusual about Bill Mott and John Shirreffs crossing paths near the Shirreffs barn at Santa Anita Park this week. The Breeders’ Cup was in the air, luring marquee trainers like flies to warm honey, and those two are always attracted to the taste of million-dollar races.

On the face of things, it will be a fairly standard Saturday for Mort Fink. He and his wife, Elaine, in their suburban Chicago home, will flip on a racing channel and place some bets.

The Saturday gambling used to happen at Arlington’s simulcast parlor. Fink is 87. He’s long dealt with diabetes, and there have been more recent setbacks. “I have no balance and can’t walk by myself,” he said. It got to where he couldn’t stand feeling folks’ pity when he and his wife went to play the races.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Miss Southern Miss, the winner of the Surfer Girl Stakes at Santa Anita in her turf debut Oct. 10, will miss Friday’s $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita because of a sore shin, trainer Keith Desormeaux said on Monday.

Desormeaux said the injury was detected Monday following a gallop. Miss Southern Miss was a leading contender for the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf on the basis of her recent win.

“It’s a shame,” Desormeaux said. “She won’t be able to enter. We’ll probably give her 30 to 45 days.”