Favorite Tale has been working lights out at Parx since his third-place finish in the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap at Saratoga on Aug. 1, but trainer Lupe Preciado has been in search of a race that will serve as a bridge to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland.
It appears he has found his spot in the fifth race on Saturday at Parx.
Work All Week took a somewhat unorthodox route while preparing for last year’s Breeders’ Cup, carefully picking his spots while barnstorming the country before ultimately earning a division championship with his half-length victory over Secret Circle in the Sprint.
For many of the elite grass runners preparing for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Keeneland on Oct. 31, this weekend is a time for workouts leading to their final prep races next week. But not all of the top prospects are staying in the barn during the afternoon.
Undrafted and jockey Frankie Dettori will be partnered for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, trainer Wesley Ward said. The Grade 1, $1 million race will be run Oct. 31 at Keeneland.
Dettori guided Undrafted to a half-length win in the Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes on June 20 at Ascot. Undrafted has started once since that six-furlong race, finishing second in the $300,000 More Than Ready Mile on Sept. 5 at Kentucky Downs. Ward said the horse’s next out will come in the Breeders’ Cup.
“He’s going to train into it,” said Ward.
American Pharoah already has swept the Triple Crown, Beholder already has won a pair of Eclipse Awards, and Honor Code likely has sewn up his first divisional title. One thing they’ve not already done, though, is race against one another, and that’s the most tantalizing aspect of this year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic specifically and this year’s Breeders’ Cup in general.
No Breeders’ Cup race has produced repeat winners like the Mile, and 2014 hero Karakontie remains on track to make it six times that a winner has returned to score again the following season.
Karakontie has more Mile history behind him. A France-based horse like Karakontie has won the Mile 10 times in 31 runnings, while Karakontie’s owner, the Niarchos family, has landed six Mile trophies with five different horses. Trainer Jonathan Pease, retiring at season’s end, trains Karakontie and trained the Niarchos-owned Spinning World to win in 1997.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Songbird, the impressive winner of the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante on Sept. 5, has scared away a few rivals for Saturday’s $300,000 Chandelier Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Santa Anita.
On Wednesday, trainers Richard Mandella and John Sadler indicated that fillies from their barns would skip the Chandelier in favor of the $70,000 Anoakia Stakes at six furlongs Oct. 11.
Mandella said Lucky Folie, the winner of a maiden race at 5 1/2 furlongs in her debut at Del Mar on Sept. 6, is not ready for the Grade 1 Chandelier Stakes, which is run at 1 1/16 miles.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Obviously, who finished third in the Woodbine Mile in Canada on Sept. 13, will not start in the $200,000 City of Hope Mile at Santa Anita and will be trained toward the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keeneland on Oct. 31.
Trainer Phil D’Amato said he prefers a lengthier gap between starts for Obviously, a 7-year-old gelding who has won seven stakes.
“The spacing is good, it’s whether I can get in” to the BC Mile, D’Amato said. “I hope to run in the Breeders’ Cup. The six weeks is perfect. I don’t want to run him in three weeks and then again in three weeks.”
Some background on the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, which will be run for the ninth time on Friday, Oct. 30:
◗ The maximum number of starters is 12, plus two also-eligible horses.
◗ Because Keeneland’s main track is 1 1/16 miles around, the two-turn race will start in front of the stands, and the first finish line will be utilized, meaning not all of the 1,236-foot stretch run will come into play. This should work in favor of forwardly placed runners.
Sheer Drama’s final road trip of the year will be a 15-hour van ride from Gulfstream Park to Keeneland, where on Oct. 30 she will be favored to win a third straight Grade 1 race.
Not just any Grade 1. It is the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff, and with Beholder likely headed to the BC Classic, Sheer Drama currently is the horse to beat in the Distaff.
