From Friday afternoon through lunchtime on Saturday, the familiar orange and purple-quartered colors of Spendthrift Farm will be easy to spot on jockeys in five Breeders’ Cup races at Del Mar.
It would be no surprise if a few of those runners reach the winner’s circle.
Grade 1 winner Johannes will stand at Claiborne Farm following a final start in Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar.
Historic Claiborne, in Paris, Ky., has a prominent incoming pair, as Johannes joins Grade 1 winner Mindframe, who will run in Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Classic. Fees for both will be announced following the Breeders’ Cup.
DEL MAR, Calif. - When Banishing runs in Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar, Chad Summers will be the trainer of record, not David Jacobson.
Jacobson said that the workman’s compensation insurance policy that is valid in other states, is not valid in California and he said it would take a couple of weeks to get a new policy, which would not be in time for him to be the trainer of record for the Breeders’ Cup.
DEL MAR, Calif. – There were two posts remaining – stalls 1 and 6 – and the names of Sovereignty and Fierceness had yet to be called as the post position draw for Saturdays $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic came to an end Monday in the Del Mar paddock.
Del Mar
Monday, Oct. 27
Weather: Cloudy
Temp.: 60°
Track: Fast
Turf: Firm
DEL MAR, Calif. – Anyone who came out expecting to see Sovereignty lay down a bullet work in final preparation for the Classic may have been sorely disappointed, but his connections certainly were not after the number one attraction for this year’s Breeders’ Cup breezed an easy, maintenance-like half-mile shortly after dawn Monday at Del Mar.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Saturday’s $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic is shaping up to be arguably the deepest running in the race’s 42-year history. It’s not just the fans who are looking forward to seeing what happens.
The 10-horse Classic field includes the top three finishers from last year’s race – Sierra Leone, Fierceness, and Forever Young – as well as a top-flight group of 3-year-olds led by Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes top three finishers Sovereignty, Journalism, and Baeza.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Gimme a Nother, a six-time graded or group stakes winner in California and South Africa, and Way to Be Marie, a minor stakes winner at Fair Grounds in March, will miss Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar.
Gimme a Nother was not shipped from trainer Graham Motion’s base in Maryland because of a minor splint bone injury, Motion said Monday. Motion said the 5-year-old will remain in training in 2026. Her absence from the Breeders’ Cup was first reported by Paulick Report.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Having done all his serious preparation at home in Saratoga, Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner Sovereignty on Monday at Del Mar put in his final work for Saturday’s $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic, breezing a half-mile in 49.83 seconds by himself.
Under assistant trainer Neil Poznansky, who is Sovereignty’s work rider but not everyday exercise rider, Sovereignty went in splits of 12.95 and 25.06, getting his final quarter in 24.77, per Daily Racing Form clocker Mike Welsch. He galloped out five furlongs in 1:03.28.
Wimbledon Hawkeye gave British trainer James Owen his first Group 2 win in the 2024 Royal Lodge Stakes at Newmarket. The colt also gave Owen his first winner in the United States and in a seven-figure race in the Grade 3, $2.6 million Nashville Derby at Kentucky Downs on Aug. 30.
Owen has greater goals with Wimbledon Hawkeye, who landed at Del Mar over the weekend for this Saturday’s $5 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar, the nation’s richest grass race.
ARCADIA, Calif. - There are quick workouts and there is the effort the 4-year-old filly Kopion displayed at Santa Anita on Sunday.
A four-time stakes winner, Kopion worked three furlongs in 33.20 seconds under jockey Mike Smith in advance of a first start against males in Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar.
“That was pretty amazing,” trainer Richard Mandella said later in the morning at his stable office. “She went in 33 and one, and it looked like she went in 36.”
