HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – It just doesn’t seem fair. Trainer Marty Wolfson will send out a four-pronged attack against the only 3-year-old in the field, the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint-bound Wildcat Lily, in Saturday’s $100,000 Musical Romance Stakes at Gulfstream Park. The race is named in honor of the winner of the 2011 Filly and Mare Sprint, who was based in south Florida with trainer Bill Kaplan throughout her racing career.
Designer Legs, a graduate of the Louisiana Thoroughbred Breeders Association’s annual yearling auction, which will be renewed next Tuesday in West Monroe, is being pointed for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, trainer Dallas Stewart said. The 1 1/16-mile race will be run at Santa Anita on Nov. 2.
Designer Legs, a Louisiana-bred daughter of Graeme Hall, was a $10,000 purchase at last year’s Breeders Sales Co. of Louisiana yearling auction. She has compiled a 3-for-4 record and earnings of $189,000 for Valene Farms.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Fort Larned, the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, will make his next start Sept. 28 in the new Homecoming Classic at his home track of Churchill Downs and not the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park the same day, as had been originally planned.
Trainer Ian Wilkes said he had a change of heart after evaluating all the factors involved in getting Fort Larned back to the $5 million BC Classic, which is set for Nov. 2 at Santa Anita.
Rain is a rarity this time of year in Southern California, and that’s why Mucho Macho Man will spend the autumn at Santa Anita preparing for his second start in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
In a week with little activity on the Classic front, Mucho Macho Man at least bumped the needle slightly when he showed up on the Santa Anita work tab Sept. 14. And this was no mere mild maintenance move, at least in terms of time: Mucho Macho Man went five furlongs in 59.20 seconds, the fastest of 58 five-eighths Santa Anita works this past Saturday.
The $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff is still six weeks away, but the $1 million Cotillion Stakes at Parx – restricted to 3-year-old fillies – will be run on Saturday.
Whether the Cotillion will have any Breeders’ Cup influence remains to be seen. Neither of the country’s top 3-year-old fillies – Kentucky Oaks winner Princess of Sylmar and Oaks runner-up Beholder – will run in the Cotillion.
Princess of Sylmar will run Sept. 28 in the Grade 1 Beldame at Belmont Park, according to trainer Todd Pletcher. Her status for the BC Distaff is not confirmed.
Last weekend’s major preps for the Grade 1, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf were more about who is not going to run in the one-mile race for 2-year-old males than who was elevated into the picture.
Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Summer Stakes at Woodbine was a Win and You’re In race, but the winner, Myconquestadory, is a filly and isn’t eligible to the race. The Mark Casse-trained daughter of Artie Schiller was very impressive making her debut in the one-mile race and will be pointed to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies instead.
Concave will train up to the Grade 1, $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita on Nov. 2, according to trainer Doug O’Neill. The winner of last month’s Grade 2 Sorrento at Del Mar, she was a closing third in the track’s Grade 1 Debutante in her most recent start Aug. 31.
“She’ll go right to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies,” O’Neill said. “We’re going to go into it fresh and ready to roll. She’s had a good campaign in a short period of time, and we thought we’d put her away and save her energy for the big one.”
Wise Dan left no doubt in Sunday’s Woodbine Mile that he will be an absolute tiger when he makes a bid to win his second straight Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita on Nov. 2. The only question now is whether he will train up to the race or make one more pre-BC start in the Shadwell Turf Mile on Oct. 5 at Keeneland.
