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JUVENILE TURF
Steve Andersen: 1. Cymric 2. Ray's the Bar 3. Hollywood Don 4. Hit It a Bomb
Mike Beer: 1. Sky Marshal 2. Highland Sky 3. Shogun 4. Hit It a Bomb
Andrew Beyer: 1. Cymric 2. Shogun 3. Birchwood 4. Highland Sky
Matt Bernier: 1. Camelot Kitten 2. Airoforce 3. Sky Marshal 4. Hit It a Bomb
LEXINGTON, Ky. – A Breeders’ Cup billed as a homecoming event will have a special shine for British-born jockey Sophie Doyle. Not only will she be riding her first Breeders’ Cup in her adopted home state of Kentucky aboard Filly and Mare Sprint contender Fioretti, but her younger brother James Doyle will have a mount aboard Birchwood in the Juvenile Turf. And their mother, former trainer Jacqueline Doyle, plans to fly in.
“Amazing,” Sophie Doyle said.
Breeders’ Cup Friday remains a work in progress.
The idea of a filly-heavy card was abandoned three years ago, and Breeders’ Cup officials have failed to agree on a different Friday “theme,” such as all juveniles or all sprinters. Races such as the Marathon and Juvenile Sprint have been banished from official Cup status like misfit toys.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Winning a Breeders’ Cup race is a remarkable accomplishment for any trainer, but for a select few with close ties to Lexington, winning one at the first Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland would be all that more special.
Shug McGaughey, Kiaran McLaughlin, and Ken McPeek are among the trainers who are returning to the place where they first dared to dream about making names for themselves in racing.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Jockey Frankie Dettori said Golden Horn felt good in a training-track gallop Wednesday at Keeneland, but a larger question is how the Keeneland grass course will feel Saturday in the $3 million Breeders’ Cup Turf, intended to be Golden Horn’s swan song before a stud career.
You would have thought that by now, Larry Jones would have won at least one running of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff by accident, especially after training such talented female Thoroughbreds as Havre de Grace, Proud Spell, Believe You Can, Island Sand, and Joyful Victory.
Then again, it’s probably in bad taste to mention “accident” around Jones, who counts himself as a paid-up member of the lucky-to-be-here-at-all club after getting roughed up and sent into a semi-coma by a racehorse just 18 months ago at Delaware Park.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The concept of the Breeders’ Cup was first hatched here in the cradle of American racing, the Bluegrass country of Lexington, back in 1982. The event debuted two years later at Hollywood Park and has taken place all over North America since then, eight times down the road a piece at Churchill Downs in Louisville.
But not until Friday will the Breeders’ Cup have been run at Keeneland, the elegant jewel whose founders wanted to present “racing as it was meant to be.” As the Breeders’ Cup celebrates its 32nd edition, it finally has come home.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – On the morning of May 2, with the focus of the racing world on Churchill Downs and the 141st Kentucky Derby, jockey Joe Bravo was at the Louisville airport, taking the first flight out of town. While 20 of his colleagues were getting ready for their chance of a lifetime, Bravo was just happy to have a chance to ride that afternoon at Belmont Park.
Entering that day, Bravo in 2015 had ridden just seven winners from 157 mounts, not the kind of numbers that attract interest from a trainer with a Derby contender.
