Though the Kelso Handicap is the only Grade 2 among the six stakes s Saturday at Belmont Pak, it drew a Grade 1 field led by Uncle Mo, last year’s 2-year-old champion. Uncle Mo, who finished second by nose in the Grade 1 King’s Bishop in his first start off a four-month layoff, will break from post 3 under John Velazquez.
BREEDERS’ CUP CHALLENGE: Racing schedule, replays, and past winners >>
Havre de Grace will break from the outside post in five-horse field entered to run 1 1/8 miles in Saturday’s Grade 1, $350,000 Beldame Invitational, which will run as race 9, just prior to the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park.
BREEDERS’ CUP CHALLENGE: Racing schedule, replays, and past winners >>
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer David Fawkes believes Big Drama will benefit from having a tough race going into the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. He just wasn’t looking for something this tough.
Big Drama, last year’s champion sprinter, heads a fantastic field of fast sprinters set to contest six furlongs in Saturday’s Grade 1, $350,000 Vosburgh Invitational, unquestionably the most competitive of the six graded stakes races to be run at Belmont Park.
Charlie Lopresti had what seemed like a career year in 2010. He won six stakes races, one more than he’d won in his first 17 years as a trainer, and three of those stakes were graded, triple Lopresti’s previous total. The 25 wins for the year was a career best, and Lopresti’s horses earned more than $1 million, roughly double his previous high.
BREEDERS' CUP MILE: Top 10 contenders with comments and early odds »
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Scooter Dickey believes Flat Out has already done enough to show he belongs in the Breeders’ Cup Classic field. So while he would like his 5-year-old horse to improve upon runner-up finishes in both the Whitney Handicap and Woodward Stakes at Saratoga when he runs in Saturday’s $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park, a victory is not paramount.
SUPER SATURDAY: Get David Grening's daily updates from Belmont Park »
Racing action on both sides of the country and both sides of the Atlantic Ocean this week should help determine the composition of the Breeders’ Cup Turf.
At Belmont, Cape Blanco makes his third straight U.S. start, and if the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic produces a performance similar to what Cape Blanco delivered winning the Man o’ War and Arlington Million in his first two trans-Atlantic trips, Cape Blanco could be favored in the Turf, regardless of what other horses might ship from Europe.
Big Drama vaulted to the top of the nation’s sprint division following his victory in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Sprint, and despite having made just two starts over the next 11 months, the champ remains at the head of the class heading into Saturday’s Grade 1 Vosburgh, his final prep for a defense of his title in the 2011 Sprint on Nov. 5.
If you want a glimpse of the three Win and You’re In winners for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, you’d better look elsewhere during the next week or so, because it’s unlikely any of them will be at Churchill Downs on Nov. 5.
Ben’s Cat is “in” after taking the Turf Monster at Parx Racing on Labor Day. The only problem is he’s not BC nominated, and so his legendary trainer, King Leatherbury, is openly soliciting backers.
Perhaps more than any other Breeders’ Cup event, the Marathon does not have a definitive prep race. There is good reason for that. For it to be a real prep, a prelude to the 1 3/4-mile Marathon, it would have to be run at a distance of at least 11 furlongs. In today’s game, the horse or horseman who would be willing to run in a prep race that far on dirt four or five weeks before a race this far would be few and far between.
Three of the five Win and You’re In stakes have been run for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, which has been upgraded from Grade 2 to Grade 1 status this year.
State of Play took the Grade 2 With Anticipation at Saratoga, to remain unbeaten in two starts for trainer Graham Motion and owner Team Valor International the same connections as Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom.
