ARCADIA, Calif. – The $2 million Distaff is not the first Breeders’ Cup drama for Untapable or Close Hatches.
They were supporting players in 2013 – Untapable eighth in the Juvenile Fillies, Close Hatches second in the Distaff.
One year later, Untapable and Close Hatches return to Santa Anita in starring roles. They are favorites in the 1 1/8-mile Distaff, race 9 of 10 and the final leg of the pick six.
ARCADIA, Calif. – All the heavy lifting is over for the overwhelming majority of this year’s Breeders’ Cup contenders, with less than a handful registering recorded works Tuesday. The group included Shared Belief , who breezed a maintenance-type half-mile in 52.40 seconds at Golden Gate Fields.
SANTA ANITA, Calif. – Angela Renee and Conquest Eclipse, the first two finishers from the Grade 1 Chandelier Stakes here Sept. 27, are 3-1 and 4-1 on the morning line for Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.
Danette, who finished third in that race, is 20-1 on the line.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Trainer Michael Stoute and Harry Herbert of Highclere Thoroughbred Racing confirmed Telescope’s next start in a conversation after the colt had finished third in the Grade 1 Juddmonte International Stakes at York, England, in August. They planned to send Telescope to California for the $3 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita.
Their plan will come to fruition when Telescope runs Saturday in the BC Turf.
ARCADIA, Calif. – European-based 2-year-olds have dominated the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf in the seven seasons since it was added to the Breeders’ Cup race roster in 2007. An overseas shipper has won five runnings of the Juvenile Turf, and Achill Island finished second to the U.S.-based Nownownow in 2007. Only in 2010 at Churchill Downs, when Pluck won, did a Euro fail to hit the exacta.
ARCADIA, Calif. – American Pharoah, expected to be a heavy favorite, was scratched from Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita on Tuesday due to an injury, his connections announced.
A devastated Bob Baffert, who trains American Pharoah for Ahmed Zayat, said the problem is with the colt’s left front foot. X-rays and an ultrasound had come back negative, he said. Baffert said he hopes it’s a “deep, deep foot bruise” but planned to perform a nuclear scan on the horse later this week.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Shared Belief, the likely favorite for the Breeders’ Cup Classic, and V. E. Day, one of the race’s outsiders, both turned in easy half-mile workouts Tuesday in their final preps for Saturday’s $5 million race.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Caspar Netscher has been on the go all through October – to racetracks in three countries and over the Atlantic twice.
After finishing fifth in the Group 3 Bengough Stakes at Ascot on Oct. 4, Caspar Netscher traveled to Woodbine, where he won his first stakes since April 2012 in the Grade 2 Nearctic Stakes. To satisfy international quarantine requirements, the 5-year-old horse was sent to Holland in the days after the Nearctic Stakes before traveling back to North America for Saturday’s $1 million Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita.
