ELMONT, N.Y. – The prospect of a wet track has trainer Dallas Stewart wavering on whether to run probable favorite Forever Unbridled in Saturday’s Grade 1, $400,000 Beldame Stakes at Belmont Park.
Forever Unbridled has never raced on a wet track in 12 career starts.
“I’m very concerned,” said Stewart, who trains the horse for Charles Fipke. “I’m trying to figure it out. We’ll make the call at the appropriate time.”
Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott has won nine Breeders’ Cup races. Five times he has won the Distaff, twice the Classic, and twice the Turf, but in the BC Mile, Mott has sent out 19 starters and failed to land the big prize – so far.
Mott has two possible Mile runners this year, Tourist and Celestine, and while neither is a household name like Tepin, both horses have turned in races during 2016 that are good enough to make them legitimate Mile contenders.
At least some of the Breeders’ Cup winners this fall at Santa Anita are expected to have run in prep races at the host track of Santa Anita in the coming weeks. But at this stage, it seems unlikely that the Nov. 5 Filly and Mare Turf is one such race.
The strength of the female turf division, both among older fillies and mares and with 3-year-old fillies, comes from the East Coast and Europe this year, not from California, where no one has been dominant. Not a single filly or mare has recorded more than one graded turf victory in Southern California this year.
There is no debate that Straight Fire is fast. There is, however, some question over his stamina – a question that figures to be answered in Saturday’s Grade 1, $300,000 FrontRunner Stakes at Santa Anita.
How Straight Fire answers that question will determine whether he becomes a major player or a spectator for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita on Nov. 5.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The dominance of older horses such as California Chrome in the Breeders’ Cup Classic division is so profound that there won’t be a single 3-year-old in the Awesome Again Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita.
In addition, there is the possibility that none of the winners of this year’s Triple Crown races will compete in this year’s Classic on Nov. 5 at Santa Anita, and if that happens, this year’s Classic might have the smallest representation of 3-year-olds ever.
Runhappy showed brilliance last year at 3, when he defeated his elders in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
This year, the champion sprinter of 2015 is going down a different path.
Runhappy is being pointed to the Grade 1, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, and his road to the race starts Saturday at Churchill Downs. Runhappy is set to make his 4-year-old debut in the Grade 3 Ack Ack, a one-turn mile intended as his springboard to the Breeders’ Cup.
The Dirt Mile, which will be run around two turns, is Nov. 4 at Santa Anita.
Haven’t been paying attention to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf division yet? No worries – plenty of time. In six of the eight editions of the Juvenile Turf, the winner had most recently started during the first two weeks of October, and the next two weeks will go a long way toward sorting out the prime players in this year’s race.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Lady Shipman faces an uphill battle on a downhill course Friday at Santa Anita.
The early favorite for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, Lady Shipman could be vulnerable when she makes her first of two planned California starts in race 6, the stronger division of the split Grade 3 Eddie D Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs on the downhill course.
After Noholdingback Bear ran off three consecutive victories and then finished second in a Grade 3 stakes while racing over the synthetic tracks at Woodbine and Presque Isle Downs this summer, showing marked improvement over his three performances last winter at Gulfstream Park, trainer Michael De Paulo wasn’t sure what to think. Was his speedy 3-year-old truly improving, or was he simply a synthetic-surface specialist?
This weekend is expected to result in the greatest shake-up on the list of contenders for the $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 5.
Flintshire, the dominant runner in New York, and Postponed, the star in Europe this year, run on Saturday and Sunday. Flintshire will be a heavy favorite in Saturday’s Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Belmont Park. Postponed will have as many as 17 rivals in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Chantilly on Sunday.
