KEENELAND
Weather: Clear
Temperature: 40
Track: Fast

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Another crisp day at Keeneland with everyone feeling good in the colder weather (well the horses anyway) as the temperature barely crept into the mid-40s by the time training hours ended at 10 a.m.

Only three Breeders’ Cup works here Thursday, but plenty of action to note, especially in regards to the Classic, with just more than a week remaining until the big event.

Gun Runner set the earnings record for a North American freshman sire in 2021, with his first Breeders’ Cup winner that season. He was the busiest stallion in North America in 2022, according to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred.

Gun Runner, the 2017 Horse of the Year, is now loaded for the upcoming Breeders’ Cup.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Major farms are rolling out their stallion rosters for 2023, and they include several Breeders’ Cup candidates.

The stallion class of 2023 will include Grade 1 winners Life Is Good, Olympiad, and Happy Saver, all candidates for the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 5. The Breeders’ Cup Classic might be the final ontrack appearance for those three, but Grade 1 races remain on the calendar and several retiring horses in recent years have taken a shot at the Pegasus World Cup, which falls prior to the start of breeding season.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike had a quiet morning of training in the barn area at Keeneland as he continues to prepare for the Breeders’ Cup Classic, not going up to the track as trainer Eric Reed kept a close eye on him.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Naughty Gal, who would have been a huge price in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, has been withdrawn from consideration by Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas for the Nov. 4 race at Keeneland, making way for one of the pre-entered horses on the alternates list.

The Juvenile Turf will once again close out the Friday Breeders’ Cup card on Nov. 4 at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., Breeders’ Cup announced on Wednesday.

The Juvenile Turf is the last of five Breeders’ Cup races, all restricted to 2-year-olds, on Friday’s 10-race card, with a post time of 5:40 p.m. First post on Nov. 4 is 11:55 a.m., with five non-Breeders’ Cup races opening the card.

Aidan O’Brien has trained four winners of the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, while Charlie Appleby has trained three, and the 2022 Juvenile Turf could come down to O’Brien versus Appleby.

Appleby, the private trainer for Godolphin in England, won the 2021 Juvenile Turf with Modern Games, who raced for purse money only after an epic snafu just before the start of the race, where the colt mistakenly was scratched.

Since 2008, trainers Bob Baffert, Todd Pletcher, Chad Brown, and Brad Cox have combined to win eight of the 14 runnings of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. So, it’s not a surprise those four trainers account for six of the 12 pre-entrants in this year’s $2 million Juvenile to be run Nov. 4 at Keeneland.

There’s no shortage of class in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.

The champions Ce Ce, Echo Zulu, and Letruska were among 17 runners pre-entered in the seven-furlong race, to be held Nov. 5 at Keeneland.

Quality trumps quantity in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 5 at Keeneland – seven Grade 1 winners are among eight fillies and mares pre-entered in the 2022 Distaff.

The small, select list of pre-entries is topped by two well-fancied Curlin fillies trained by Todd Pletcher – Nest and Malathaat.