ARCADIA, Calif. – Living The Life, who would have been one of the longer shots in her final start Nov. 5 in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, has been retired after exiting her latest workout with slight filling in her right front ankle.
Trainer Gary Mandella said the development is frustrating for himself and owner Hank Nothhaft “because we were just now figuring out how to make her run well on the dirt.” Nine of Living The Life’s 10 victories came on a synthetic surface.
Pleaseletmewin was the last pre-entered horse in the main body of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, but he will not be shipped to California from England after being sold at auction Wednesday.
Pleaseletmewin, a Group 3 winner, will instead head to Qatar to be campaigned this winter. The defection allows J. S. Choice, the first also-eligible among pre-entered horses, to get into the race. If Good Samaritan, whose connections listed the Juvenile as first preference over the Juvenile Turf at pre-entry, also comes out, Kitten’s Cat would land a spot in the 14-horse field.
Mondialiste is nearly certain to start in the Breeders’ Cup Turf instead of the Breeders’ Cup Mile, trainer David O’Meara said Thursday.
Mondialiste won the 1 1/4-mile Arlington Million, earning a fees-paid entry into the Turf and travel expenses from England to Santa Anita through the Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In program, but he has been much more a miler type throughout his career than a horse suited to the Turf’s 1 1/2 miles. Last year, he finished second to Tepin in the Breeders’ Cup Mile.
Frank Stronach thinks highly of the Breeders’ Cup Classic as a stallion-making race. That’s no secret.
Five Classic winners have resided on Stronach’s Adena Springs stallion roster, and Shaman Ghost surely will have a place in the stud barn regardless of the outcome Nov. 5 at Santa Anita. But a Classic win by the homebred colt would be a history-making achievement that would take generations to match.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint will be contested by horses from the barns of Bob Baffert, Bill Mott, Chad Brown, and other world-renowned trainers.
And then there’s Ian Kruljac, whose career victories stand at a grand total of three, all from Finest City, one of the sleepers in the seven-furlong Filly and Mare Sprint.
“She’s running, not me,” said Kruljac. “She’s going to speak for herself.”
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Phyllis Wyeth liked the strapping, white-faced colt delivered by her mare Tempo in the spring of 2009. The new arrival represented the fourth generation of Thoroughbreds in a line her family had cultivated since 1964, when her late mother, Alice du Pont Mills, had purchased a mare.
Wyeth intended to keep the colt and race him in the colors of her Chadds Ford Stable, but her accountant advised her to sell him to bolster her stable’s tax standing as a business, not a hobby.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Lord Nelson forced owner B. Wayne Hughes and trainer Bob Baffert into a decision last winter – retire him or race him?
After Lord Nelson finished third in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes for 3-year-old sprinters at Santa Anita last December, Hughes was strongly considering retiring the colt to his Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky. Hughes and Baffert met to decide whether to race Lord Nelson in 2016. There were merits to both arguments.
As a son of Pulpit, Lord Nelson would be attractive to breeders, and he needed a rest from racing anyway.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Lull and Pure Sensation, two of trainer Christophe Clement’s three Breeders’ Cup horses, put in workouts on a crisp Wednesday morning at Belmont Park.
Lull, pointing to the Juvenile Fillies Turf, went an easy five furlongs in 1:02.48, getting her final three furlongs in 36.47 seconds while reaching out nicely with her ears up and under minimal urging. She began her move at the half-mile pole and galloped out six furlongs in 1:16.24. Lull just ran second in the Jessamine Stakes at Keeneland two weeks ago.
Texas Chrome left his Remington Park base in Oklahoma City on Wednesday bound for Santa Anita, said trainer J.R. Caldwell. The horse is being pointed to the Grade 1, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Nov. 4.
“We timed it like this to make sure he got in, and all’s good,” said Caldwell.
Pre-entries for the Dirt Mile were taken Monday and announced Wednesday. There were 12 horses pre-entered in the race, which has a maximum gate of 12.
Santa Anita
Track: Fast
Weather: Clear
Temp. 64
ARCADIA, Calif. – It was a relatively quiet morning at Santa Anita on Wednesday, when the biggest news was made off the track with the announcement of the pre-entries for the Breeders’ Cup.
