Trying to win the Breeders’ Cup Turf with a horse based in North America is one of those “why bother?” endeavors. American runners usually end up high-class cannon fodder, reduced to chanting the mantra, “It’s an honor simply to be nominated.”

ARCADIA, Calif. - American Pharoah, the multiple Grade 1-winning 2-year-old, will be scratched from Saturday's $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile, trainer Bob Baffert confirmed Tuesday morning.

:: BREEDERS’ CUP 2014: Post positions and odds

Baffert was to hold a press conference at 9:30 am Pacific to provide details.

American Pharoah, who won the Del Mar Futurity and FrontRunner Stakes, was the morning-line favorite for the race.

Hardest Core’s out-of-the-blue win in the Arlington Million was the feel-good story of the summer. A little-known horse – owned, trained, and ridden by obscure connections – takes on the big guys and wins a $1 million race, defeating the reigning Breeders’ Cup Turf champ, Magician, fair and square.

Now things get a bit sticky. Hardest Core is preparing for an even greater challenge, the $3 million Breeders’ Cup Turf. Was the Million a fluke, or is Hardest Core for real?

ARCADIA, Calif. – Art Sherman flashed a thumb’s-up sign. Victor Espinoza flashed a smile. The California Chrome camp, anxiously watching the post-position draw Monday for the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday at Santa Anita, was thrilled when California Chrome drew an outside post, No. 13, for a race that should decide Horse of the Year.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The Breeders’ Cup Distaff favorites drew advantageous outside post positions Monday for the $2 million race that will be held Friday at Santa Anita.

Close Hatches and Untapable drew comfortably on the outside in posts 10 and 11 for the centerpiece race Friday. A field of 11 entered the Distaff, race 9 on a 10-race card.

Untapable is the 2-1 favorite on the Daily Racing Form morning line, with Close Hatches the second choice at 5-2. Santa Anita oddsmaker Jon White opened Untapable as the 5-2 favorite, with Close Hatches the second choice at 3-1.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The champ is out, and in his absence, 15 others are in.

Wise Dan, injured earlier this month, can’t return on Saturday to try and win his third straight Breeders’ Cup Mile, and his defection swelled the field to bursting. Fourteen turf milers are in the main body of the $2 million Mile, with Mr. Commons the lone also-eligible.

Toronado, the 5-2 morning-line favorite, drew well in post 5, and will have the services of regular rider Richard Hughes, who won his first Breeders’ Cup race here last year with Chriselliam in the Juvenile Fillies Turf.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Todd Pletcher won’t have to look too far to find his pair of runners in Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita.

Feathered and Angela Renee drew posts 1 and 2 for the Juvenile Fillies, the first of nine Breeders’ Cup races to be run Saturday. A field of 12 was entered Monday for the Juvenile Fillies, run at 1 1/16 miles.

Angela Renee, who shipped here from New York to win the Grade 1 Chandelier Stakes on Sept. 27, was installed as the 2-1 morning-line favorite by Santa Anita oddsmaker Jon White.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Twelve is quickly becoming trainer Todd Pletcher’s unlucky number.

For the second straight year, Pletcher will have a horse leave from post 12 in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita, where there is a short run to the first turn in races run at 1 1/16 miles.

Daredevil, winner of the Grade 1 Champagne at Belmont Park, was assigned post 12 in a 13-horse field drawn Monday for Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Last year, Pletcher’s Havana left from post 12 - he originally had the 13 before a late scratch - and finished second.

ARCADIA, Calif. – A well-balanced field of 10 has been entered for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, with likely favorites Artemis Agrotera and Judy the Beauty assigned to the middle of the starting gate for the seven-furlong race Saturday at Santa Anita.

Artemis Agrotera, a flashy winner of the Ballerina and Gallant Bloom in her last two starts, got post 5, while Judy the Beauty, the runner-up in the Filly and Mare Sprint last year, will start nearby in post 7.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Frankie Dettori’s 10 Breeders’ Cup wins places him in a tie for sixth in the all-time Breeders’ Cup jockey standings. Dettori’s last Breeders’ Cup flying dismount, his signature leap performed after a victory, came in 2010, when he won the Turf on Dangerous Midge. But Dettori is well mounted this year to claim another Breeders’ Cup race, and his live mount in the Juvenile Turf, Hootenanny, drew well in post 5 for the $1 million race.