Point of Entry, unraced since June because of injury, still might have enough time to be ready for the $3 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 2.
That was trainer Shug McGaughey’s assessment Tuesday of Point of Entry’s progress in the month since the horse rejoined his stable following surgery for a condylar fracture to his left hind cannon bone. The injury was diagnosed following a win in the Grade 1 Manhattan Stakes at Belmont Park on June 7.
The leading contenders for the Grade 1, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf should become a lot clearer Sunday. There are four major preps for the Juvenile Turf, including three Win and You’re In races, beginning with the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at Longchamp in France.
European-based horses have won four of the six previous runnings of the Juvenile Turf, and Pounced used the Lagardere as his final prep before winning the 2009 Juvenile Turf. It still is too early to know if any of the horses running in the Lagardere are being pointed to the Juvenile Turf, however.
Although last Saturday’s Rodeo Drive Stakes at Santa Anita confirmed victorious Tiz Flirtatious and runner-up Marketing Mix as participants in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf on Nov. 2 at Santa Anita, Belmont’s Flower Bowl was less decisive as a prep.
This is the last week of major preps for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, and by the end of the day next Wednesday, the shape of the race largely will be complete, at least in the minds of the owners of contenders, though those intentions may not be made public for some time.
For the first half of 2013 it looked like Silver Max’s best days were behind him. The leading early-season 3-year-old turf horse in North America during 2012, Silver Max tailed off last fall and meekly began his campaign this year, finishing fifth in the Grade 3 Appleton at Gulfstream and fourth in the Grade 1 Turf Classic on Derby Day. Things got slightly better in two subsequent dirt starts, an off-the-turf, sloppy-track win over just three foes in the $62,000 Opening Verse, and a third in the Cornhusker Handicap, but then, somewhat out of the blue, Silver Max found himself again.
A little more than four weeks out, the field for the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile remains very much in flux, and last weekend’s developments in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, Kelso Invitational, and Awesome Again did little to clarify things.
It has not been by design that trainer Shug McGaughey has participated in just one of the last 20 runnings of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.
McGaughey, who won the 1989 Juvenile with Rhythm, said his absence from the richest race of the year for 2-year-olds is a product of the type of stock he has gotten in recent years; horses bred to start later and run longer distances than typically available early in a juvenile’s career.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Wise Dan has been assigned the outside post in a field of 10 older horses entered in the Grade 1, $750,000 Shadwell Turf Mile, the richest race of the Keeneland fall meet and one of five graded stakes on a sensational Saturday program.
Wise Dan, the reigning Horse of the Year, will have John Velazquez aboard in the Shadwell, a two-turn race he won last year as a 3-5 favorite. The 6-year-old gelding has won his last nine races and surely will be a huge favorite again as he makes his final start before the Nov. 2 Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita.
The previous weekend’s races saw two of the leading contenders for the Breeders’ Cup Marathon in action. One showed he is coming into form for his target race, while the other didn’t show much at all.
Indian Jones, who established himself as a Marathon contender off a runner-up finish by a nose in the Grade 3 Greenwood Cup Stakes, finished second in an optional-claiming race on Sept. 26 at Laurel Park.
Reneesgotzip got back to work Tuesday morning after a planned freshening, breezing three furlongs in 37.20 at Betfair Hollywood Park, and all systems remain “go” for her to start in the Breeders’ Cup. But which race will Reneesgotzip start in?
