ARCADIA, Calif. – The champion females Beholder and Songbird are approaching their first meeting in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Santa Anita on Nov. 4 in excellent form – and on the same exercise schedule.
On Thursday at Santa Anita, Beholder and Songbird recorded quick workouts about an hour apart. Songbird worked at dawn, going six furlongs in 1:12.80. Beholder worked five furlongs in 59.20 seconds shortly after the start of the 7:45 a.m. training session.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Coasted, the winner of the P.G. Johnson Stakes at Saratoga and third as the favorite in the Miss Grillo at Belmont, worked five furlongs in 1:01.73 over the Belmont Park training track Thursday. Trained by Leah Gyarmati, Coasted is being pointed to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Nov. 4 at Santa Anita.
:: Breeders’ Cup Challenge: Results, replays, charts, and more
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Jimmy Jerkens and stable manager Russell Cohen confirmed that Flavien Prat will ride Effinex in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Prat, the second-leading rider at the Santa Anita meet with 11 wins from 50 mounts, replaces Mike Smith, who is riding Travers winner Arrogate.
Prat tied Rafael Bejarano for leading rider at Del Mar.
:: Breeders’ Cup Challenge: Results, replays, charts, and more
ELMONT, N.Y. – One day later than planned, Shaman Ghost got in his long-distance workout for the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic, breezing seven furlongs in 1:28.47 over the Belmont Park training track Thursday.
:: Breeders’ Cup Challenge: Results, replays, charts, and more
The suspense is over. Frosted, a multiple Grade 1 stakes winner, will make his next start in the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Nov. 5, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said Thursday.
“All systems go to the Classic,” McLaughlin said by phone from Saratoga.
The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf has attracted a full gate of starters eight times during its nine-year history, and the lone exception, 2013, had a 13-horse field. The race nearly always attracts more interested parties than can start, and it probably will again this year when it is run Nov. 4 at Santa Anita, but Breeders’ Cup officials even at this late date are wondering just who will fill in the margins.
Trainer David O’Meara has confirmed that Mondialiste will be cross-entered in the Breeders’ Cup Mile and Breeders’ Cup Turf but said the Mile remains the most likely target.
Mondialiste won the Arlington Million, a Win and You’re In race offering a fees-paid berth in the Turf. But Mondialiste is a 6-year-old with 22 starts, a miler who never has raced farther than 1 1/4 miles, and it seems late in the game to stretch him out to 1 1/2 miles.
By way of Canada, the European contingent for the $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 5 grew stronger last weekend.
Erupt won the Grade 1 Canadian International at Woodbine on Sunday, a performance expected to lead to a relatively quick turnaround to the BC Turf. Erupt was available at 7-1 or 8-1 with British bookmakers on Wednesday, behind the New York-based Flintshire (2-1) and the Europeans Highland Reel (5-2) and Found (3-1).
Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer is hoping Point Piper will encounter the same racing conditions in the Grade 1, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Nov. 4 at Santa Anita as he did in August in the Grade 3 Longacres Mile at Emerald Downs. Point Piper won that two-turn race in a track-record time of 1:32.90.
