ARCADIA, Calif. - Long name, short field.

Just five 2-year-old fillies were entered in the first of 12 races Saturday at Santa Anita, the $100,000 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Filly Sprint Preview Stakes. The seven-furlong race is supposed to provide a glimpse into what an actual BC race in this niche would look like, but given the dearth of entries – all five fillies are locally based, with apparently no outside stables having shown any interest – it could be this first running will be the last. That, obviously, is a question for another day.

Sustained has been scratched from Friday's Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita.

Trainer Dale Romans said that Sustained was scratched after she was found to be off in her right foreleg.

"It's better to be safe than sorry," he said.

As a result, Infanta Branca has drawn into the race from the also-eligible list.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The $100,000 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint Preview at Santa Anita on Saturday was not the original goal of the weekend for the English colt Snow King or the California filly Moulin de Mougin.

They were pre-entered for $1 million juvenile turf races on Friday and Saturday, only to be excluded when the races attracted too many entries.

The Juvenile Turf Sprint Preview, a 6 ½-furlong sprint on the hillside turf course run before the Breeders’ Cup races, is a consolation of sorts, and a chance for one of them to gain a first stakes victory.

ARCADIA, Calif. – You know the tale. Improbable story. Bit melancholy in the end. Still generally uplifting.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Mile High Magic earned his way into Saturday’s $100,000 Damascus Stakes for 3-year-olds over seven furlongs at Santa Anita.

The deal was clinched after trainer Bob Baffert watched the gelding work a half-mile in 47 seconds on Monday.
“After working him, I decided I’d run,” Baffert said.

Mile High Magic has won 2 of 6 starts, but has yet to win a stakes. In his stakes debut, he finished second by a length in the Jim Kostoff Stakes over 6 1/2 furlongs at Fairplex Park on Sept. 9.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Narrowing down Saturday’s $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Santa Anita to one of the European-based runners still leaves handicappers with five horses from which to choose.

Perhaps, then, it best to heed this assessment from Jeremy Noseda, the trainer of the European-based Fantastic Moon.
“The standout horse to me, the one we all have to beat, is Dundonnell,” Noseda said. “Beat him and you win.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – The Breeders’ Cup calling its races “World Championships” often strains belief. But when it comes to the Breeders’ Cup Mile, the nomenclature feels just about right.

With Frankel retired, Excelebration, Wise Dan, and Moonlight Cloud probably are the three best turf milers in the world, and they square off Saturday at Santa Anita in a blockbuster edition of the $2,125,000 BC Mile.

ARCADIA, Calif. – At this time last year, St Nicholas Abbey won the richest race of his career, the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Churchill Downs.  Point of Entry was racing rather anonymously in optional claimers.

A year later, they are equals. Point of Entry has bloomed into a turf star in New York, winning three consecutive Grade 1 races at Saratoga and Belmont. St Nicholas Abbey has won a Group 1 race this year – the Coronation Stakes at Epsom, England, in June – but has lost his last four starts.

ARCADIA, Calif. – One day after they go at it with the major players in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, trainers Todd Pletcher and Bob Baffert will clash again Saturday with the top contenders in the $2 million Juvenile at Santa Anita.
The difference Saturday is Baffert will send out two runners to Pletcher’s one.

But Pletcher’s Shanghai Bobby has so far been the one in the 2-year-old division, winning all four of his starts including the Grade 2 Hopeful at Saratoga and Grade 1 Champagne at Belmont.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Troy Rankin will come to the paddock at Santa Anita and try to let it all sink in. Regardless of how his stable star, an Indiana-bred longshot named I’m Boundtoscore, fares Saturday in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, it should be the thrill of a lifetime for a farmer and self-proclaimed “good ol’ boy” from the outskirts of Lexington, Ky.