LEXINGTON, Ky. – Billy Donovan famously said that winning back-to-back NCAA basketball championships didn’t change his life one little bit. In fact, after coaching the University of Florida to those 2006-07 titles, “I was depressed,” he told Business Insider years later.

Eric Reed has yet to experience that paradox – and doesn’t think he ever will.

“I’m taking this feeling with me to the grave,” he said.

Indeed, six months after winning the 148th Kentucky Derby with 80-1 shot Rich Strike, Reed, 58, is still flying on a proverbial cloud.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Flightline got his feet wet early Monday morning jogging once around a muddy Keeneland surface. Saturday, he’ll be the shark in the water when he takes on seven rivals – like him all Grade 1 winners – in the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland.

Though nine horses were pre-entered for the Classic on Oct. 24, Cyberknife, as expected, was entered Monday for Saturday’s $1 million Dirt Mile. Cyberknife’s connections were going to run in the Classic only if Flightline did not.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The foal crop in Iowa averaged 177 per year from 2016 to 2020, according to statistics from The Jockey Club. The New Mexico foal crop averaged 430. From those relatively small groups, Iowa and New Mexico each has a Breeders’ Cup runner this year, just the second in their respective histories.

Iowa-bred Tyler’s Tribe is unbeaten in five starts, all in his home state, with four open-lengths stakes victories as he prepares for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint at Keeneland.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Three-time Grade 1 winner Jack Christopher was not entered Monday for Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland owing to concerns from his connections that the horse would be scratched before race day by Kentucky Horse Racing Commission veterinarians based on how the horse moves in his training, according to trainer Chad Brown.

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Letruska, the 2021 Eclipse champion older female, was not entered Monday in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint and will be given some time off while her connections decide on her future, trainer Fausto Gutierrez said Monday.

“She needs a break after the last race,” Gutierrez said. “She probably needs to be a broodmare, but we’ll give it some time to think about it.”

Flightline is campaigned by the partnership of Hronis Racing, Siena Farm, breeder Summer Wind Farm, West Point Thoroughbreds, and the Lane’s End-affiliated Woodford Racing. Bloodstock agent David Ingordo, who advises several of those entities, said the partnership came together quite naturally, as several of those groups already had ties with the others.

“It was very organic,” Ingordo said, “and it ended up being a match made in heaven for horse, trainer, and owners.”

Summer Wind Farm

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Jane Lyon bred and raised the unbeaten and unchallenged Flightline. But she can’t say he’s her favorite horse.

“Do people love one of their children more than the others?” Lyon asked rhetorically. “Probably not.”

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Trainer Graham Motion went an excellent 5-2-2 with his 13 turf runners at the Keeneland meet that ended Oct. 29, and Motion has four more grass horses for the Breeders’ Cup races on Friday and Saturday at Keeneland. 

G Laurie starts in the Juvenile Fillies Turf, which Motion won in 2019 with Sharing; Nagirroc will run in the Juvenile Turf; and, on Saturday, Motion has two starters, Highland Chief and Bye Bye Melvin, for the Breeders’ Cup Turf.  

KEENELAND
Weather: Clear 
Temp: 57  
Track: Fast 
Turf: Good

National Treasure will be re-equipped with blinkers when he again takes on stablemate Cave Rock in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile next Friday at Keeneland.

National Treasure wore blinkers when he won his debut, but trainer Bob Baffert took them off when he ran against Cave Rock in the Grade 1 American Pharoah. In that race, National Treasure wound up chasing Cave Rock all the way around the track, finishing second to Cave Rock.