ARCADIA, Calif. -- The $2 million Ladies' Classic will live up to its classic moniker Friday when the Breeders' Cup rolls back into Santa Anita for a two-day event that includes one of the most widely anticipated races of 2012.

Some are calling this year's Ladies' Classic field the strongest ever -- seven Grade 1 winners, including three champions, two of whom are unbeaten.

"There is no shortage of champions in there," Bill Mott said referring to his trainee Royal Delta, and unbeaten fillies My Miss Aurelia and Awesome Feather.

ARCADIA, Ca. - Since 2008, when the Breeders’ Cup program expanded to include a pair of turf races for 2-year-olds, European-based horses have won 11 of 24 Breeders’ Cup races contested on grass. That’s a robust rate, but one race United States-based horses have ruled is the Juvenile Fillies Turf, in which Americans have gone 4 for 4. 

ARCADIA, Calif. – The following are final impressions of selected horses competing on Friday’s Breeders’ Cup program from observations made at Belmont Park and Santa Anita over the past two weeks.

Juvenile Sprint

ARCADIA, Calif. – It might have been a bumpy ride, but Royal Delta escaped Hurricane Sandy and shipped Monday from the East Coast to Santa Anita, where on Friday she will lead an outstanding field of eight fillies and mares to post in the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic.

The $2 million, 1 1/8-mile race for fillies and mares was previously known as the Distaff. By any name, the 2012 edition is considered the strongest in the 29-year history of the race.

ARCADIA, Calif. - In the race where post position may matter the least, a field of 14 long-winded specialists was drawn Monday for the $500,000 Breeders’ Cup Marathon. A 1 3/4-mile race, the Marathon will be decided as the second race on Friday’s Breeders’ Cup program at Santa Anita.

ARCADIA, Calif. – If California Flag wins the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint for the second time in a long career at age 8, he will have to turn in a spectacular performance after drawing the rail in a 14-horse field.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Of the 12 fillies and mares in Friday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita only one can boast a win over the course and distance this year.

Marketing Mix won the Grade 1 Rodeo Drive Stakes over 1 1/4 miles on turf on Sept. 29, a victory that vaulted her to the fore of the American contenders for Friday’s race.

Her familiarity with the course will be needed.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Assistant trainer Richard Hannon Jr. said Monday that he hoped for a draw between posts 1 and 6 for possible favorite Sky Lantern in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. Hannon and his father, Richard Sr., haven’t had good luck in past Breeders’ Cup experiences, but in this instance good fortune smiled, with Sky Lantern landing post 3 in an overfilled edition of the $1 million Juvenile Fillies Turf.

[BREEDERS' CUP PPs: Visit DRF's official BC Handicapping Center]

ARCADIA, Calif. - Shanghai Bobby has a spot in the starting gate for Saturday’ $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Now he just needs to get here from New York.

Shanghai Bobby drew post 4 in a nine-horse field set to run 1 1/16 miles in Saturday’s Juvenile. Shanghai Bobby was scheduled to ship out Tuesday from New York, but Hurricane Sandy postponed that flight by a day, and it is now scheduled to leave Newburgh, N.Y., at 8:15 a.m. Wednesday.

Jack Wolf, part of the Starlight Stable partnership that owns Shanghai Bobby, did not seem too worried about his horse making it here.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Shackleford was assigned post 6 in a field of nine 3-year-olds and upward entered to run Saturday at Santa Anita in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, a starting slot that might have the $2.8-million earner in a tenuous early position between the other likely speed horses, Delegation (post 2) and Emcee (post 7).

Does trainer Dale Romans care?

“Not really,” he said. “He’s been there in the heat of battle plenty of times before. He knows what he’s supposed to do.”