Something’s got to give when a stellar field assembles at Santa Anita on Nov. 5 for what may be the most challenging and competitive Breeders’ Cup Sprint in recent memory.
Lord Nelson, A. P. Indian, Joking, and Delta Bluesman, the four Breeders’ Cup Challenge race winners in the division, will enter the Sprint having won 18 of their last 19 starts combined. They’ll be joined in the gate by Drefong and Masochistic, who are a perfect 5 for 5 between them and are both Grade 1 winners in 2016.
Mongolian Saturday, a smallish but scrappy gelding, is nippy in the shed row and has to hit the track first rather than deigning to walk in line in the post parade.
But when his feet touched the turf course last Saturday at Keeneland, he was all business.
“He was very calm,” trainer Enebish Ganbat said. “He was never calm like today. I was surprised – [I thought], ‘Maybe he’s wrong.’ ”
The last two prep races for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint were run last weekend, but perhaps the biggest piece of news regarding the Nov. 5 race at Santa Anita was the revelation from trainer Todd Pletcher that Curalina will be pre-entered in both the Filly and Mare Sprint and the $2 million BC Distaff.
The undefeated Sweet Loretta will head into the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita on Nov. 5 as the top 2-year-old filly on the East Coast. The 1 1/16-mile race will be her first start in nine weeks.
The extended time between races is not necessarily a bad thing. Last year, trainer Todd Pletcher ran 16 horses in stakes at Keeneland over Breeders’ Cup weekend. He experienced his greatest success with horses coming in off short layoffs.
Dale Romans watched the last round of prep races for the Grade 1, $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile like a golfer already in the clubhouse with a two-stroke lead.
Romans, the trainer of Iroquois Stakes winner Not This Time, saw good performances from the Chad Brown-trained Practical Joke in the Champagne Stakes and Classic Empire, trained by Mark Casse, in the Breeders’ Futurity, but he still likes his position on the course.
In 2015, Da Big Hoss was a 60-1 afterthought in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Keeneland. He finished sixth of 12, 6 1/2 lengths behind the winner, the 3-year-old filly Found.
Da Big Hoss is scheduled for another start in the $4 million BC Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 5. This time, his price will be far lower and the expectations far higher.
Da Big Hoss has won his last four starts at four different venues – in Kentucky, Illinois, and New York – since April and approaches the BC Turf in the best form of his career.
From his Florida home, owner Martin Schwartz watched with disappointment when Cavale Doree finished fifth in the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac at Chantilly Racecourse in France on Oct. 2.
The Prix Marcel Boussac, France’s top race for 2-year-old fillies, was the first race on the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe program. As the day continued, Schwartz noted few winners closing from well off the pace.
“After several races were run, there was a tremendous bias,” Schwartz said last weekend. “She’s a strong closer.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Air travel from New York or Kentucky out to California for the Breeders’ Cup is not complicated. Cavorting stayed home in New York all spring and summer and won three graded stakes. Now comes autumn, and Cavorting soon will head to California.
“We’re going to an away game; it’s not a challenge,” trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said this week from New York. “It’s a flight, and shipping.”
No more, no less – no big deal.
Dortmund will run in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile on Nov. 4 at Santa Anita, trainer Bob Baffert said Tuesday. Among his possible opponents in the Dirt Mile are Runhappy, last year's Breeders' Cup Sprint winner, and Frosted, who also is being considered for the Classic.
Dortmund will be cutting back to a mile following a runner-up finish to California Chrome in the Grade 1 Awesome Again at 1 1/8 miles Oct. 1 at Santa Anita. Dortmund pressed California Chrome through quick fractions and ran on through the stretch to equal his best career Beyer Speed Figure, a 110.
Grade 1, $500,000 Breeders’ Futurity; 1 1/16 miles; Keeneland; Oct. 8, 2016
(10 Derby qualifying points for a win, 4 for second, 2 for third, 1 for fourth)
Winner: Classic Empire, by Pioneerof the Nile
Trainer: Mark Casse
Jockey: Julien Leparoux
Owner: John Oxley
Beyer Speed Figure: 88
