ARCADIA, Calif. – California, here they come.
Led by California Chrome, acknowledged as the best dirt horse in the world, as well as nine Breeders’ Cup race winners from last year and two from prior years, a total of 185 horses were announced on Wednesday as having been pre-entered in the 13 Breeders’ Cup races that will be run Nov. 4-5 here at Santa Anita. Among the popular stars pre-entered were Beholder, Found, Frosted, Lady Eli, Runhappy, Songbird, and Tepin.
Everyone who wants to start in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita on Nov. 5 will get their chance, as 13 were pre-entered in the 1 1/16-mile race, one fewer than the limit of 14 starters.
Eleven probably will start because With Honors, trained by Keith Desormeaux, and New Money Honey, who races for Chad Brown, have the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf as their first preference. The Juvenile Fillies Turf is oversubscribed with 21 pre-entries, but both With Honors and New Money Honey qualified on points and are in the body of the race.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Trainer Art Sherman is armed with the acknowledged favorite for the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic in California Chrome, but when Sherman contemplated the prospective field the other morning at Los Alamitos, he figured it would come up tougher than expected.
“You’ll have to run every inch,” he said. “There’ll be no gimmes in this race.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Beholder has one final chapter to write in a storybook career that will end Nov. 4 at Santa Anita, where she will face undefeated 3-year-old filly Songbird for the first and last time in perhaps the most widely anticipated race of the 2016 Breeders’ Cup.
The $2 million Distaff will make history whether or not Beholder wins in the final start of her career. For the first time, a Distaff field will include three reigning champions – Songbird, 2-year-old filly; Beholder, older dirt female; and Stellar Wind, 3-year-old filly.
Santa Anita
Main Track: Fast
Weather: Clear
Temp. 68
ARCADIA, Calif. - There are some who believe this year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic will be a walk in the park for division leader California Chrome. Others think it might be a two-horse race between California Chrome and 3-year-old sensation Arrogate.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Led by Travers winner Arrogate, trainer Bob Baffert on Tuesday morning at Santa Anita worked four of the nine horses he said he has pre-entered in the 13 Breeders’ Cup races that will be run Nov. 4-5 at Santa Anita. When the morning was done, Baffert was in a jovial, light-hearted mood, an indication that all had gone well.
“Everything went really well,” Baffert said. “I feel good. All you can ask for is that they still have some life.”
Veteran sportscaster Mike Tirico will host the Saturday Breeders’ Cup broadcast on NBC-TV on Nov. 5, the network announced, marking the first time that Tirico has worked on a racing broadcast.
Tirico, who joined NBC this year after a long career at ESPN and ABC, said in a statement distributed by the network that he has “always enjoyed watching the Breeders’ Cup cap the year and set the storylines for the following spring.”
“Now I can’t wait to experience that in person for the first time,” Tirico said.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Effinex, the runner-up to American Pharoah in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic, worked five furlongs in 1:00.46 over the Belmont Park training track Monday in preparation for this year’s $6 million BC Classic on Nov. 5 at Santa Anita.
Under exercise rider Kelvin Pahal, Efffinex went his first three furlongs in 36.29 seconds, which prompted trainer Jimmy Jerkens, watching from the eighth pole, to raise his hand to have Pahal slow the horse down. He got his final quarter in 24.17 seconds and galloped out six furlongs in 1:13.91.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Todd Pletcher said on Monday that he pre-entered nine in the Breeders’ Cup, including Keen Ice, who will start in the Classic on Nov. 5 at Santa Anita.
Keen Ice, who beat American Pharoah in the 2015 Travers, is coming off a third-place finish in an allowance race at Belmont on Oct. 7, his first start since running eighth behind California Chrome in the Dubai World Cup.
