ARCADIA, Calif. - Monday’s post-position draw for the $500,000 Breeders’ Cup Marathon at Santa Anita on Friday is likely to have little effect on race strategy.
The Marathon is the longest of the Breeders’ Cup races, run over 1 3/4 miles on the main track, allowing ample time for the 10 runners to sort themselves out before reaching the first of three turns.
The Great Lasix Experiment ends here, but the debate is expected to continue.
The waning effort to ban the race-day use of Lasix, an anti-bleeding medication legal to administer in every jurisdiction in North America, will have one last hurrah at this year’s Breeders’ Cup, where the drug will be banned for the second year in a row for all horses entered in races restricted to 2-year-olds.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The last of the major workouts at Santa Anita for the 2013 Breeders’ Cup took place Monday, although with more and more horses continuing to arrive from across the United States and Europe, activity during training hours is just beginning to heat up.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The Breeders’ Cup has altered the way in which horses not nominated as foals to the event can be permitted to participate. A payment that represents a percentage of the purse of the race to which a horse was being supplemented has been changed to a flat $100,000 fee (or $200,000 if the horse’s sire was not BC-nominated at the time of conception) that makes a horse eligible for any Breeders’ Cup race for the rest of his career.
ARCADIA, Calif. – There were simple reasons why Old Time Hockey was pre-entered for Friday’s $500,000 Breeders’ Cup Marathon over 1 3/4 miles on dirt at Santa Anita.
“He wants to run all day, and it is for $500,000,” trainer Tom Proctor said.
There was a practical reason, too.
“He’s a notch below the best marathon turf horses,” Proctor said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Teaks North was claimed for $100,000 when he finished sixth in a turf race at Saratoga on Aug. 15. Just 11 weeks later, he will be a longshot in Saturday’s $3 million Breeders' Cup Turf.
It is worth a gamble, according to trainer Eric Guillot.
“If I run third, I’d be clear for the year,” Guillot said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Trainer Bob Baffert used equipment known as “rings” on Tap It Rich for his final workout Monday before Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.
Tap It Rich, under jockey Rafael Bejarano, worked five furlongs in 1:00.57 over Santa Anita’s main track, and it was evident that the horse wanted to do more. Tap It Rich had his head cocked to the left around the far turn during the work but kept it straight down the lane. The rings, through which the reins are slid, are designed to keep a horse from getting his head up high.
ARCADIA, Calif. – In the week leading up to a big event such as the Breeders’ Cup, a lot of emphasis is put on morning workouts. Trainer Mark Casse, however, believes workouts can be overrated. In the cases of the 2-year-olds My Conquestadory (Juvenile Fillies Turf) and Conquest Titan (Juvenile), neither will have an official work the week before their Breeders’ Cup engagements.
“Most of the time, breezing, I think it’s overrated, for one thing,” Casse said Monday from Florida. “As long as they’re happy and healthy and training good.”
With so many top horses in so many championship-quality races, I think it makes sense to start handicapping the Breeders’ Cup by identifying two different types of horses:
◗ Betting favorites who seem worth their acclaim and will be difficult to defeat.
◗ Betting favorites who seem quite vulnerable and will be worth betting against.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Their paths to the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic could not have been more different, but both Game On Dude and Paynter indicated they are set for their absolute best on Saturday at Santa Anita with sharp final workouts here Monday morning.
It was a busy day for Classic preparation, because Fort Larned, last year’s winner, worked at Churchill Downs in advance of his flight to California on Tuesday.
Game On Dude was the beaten favorite in last year’s Classic, but he has not lost since and is expected to be favored again this year.
