Obsessive, reverent, laid back, indulgent -- the team behind the unbeaten mare reflects her quirky brilliance.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Marty Wolfson believed First Passage rated a decent chance to pull a huge upset in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on Friday at Churchill Downs, but with the filly highly likely to be excluded as an also-eligible, Wolfson has refocused his sights on the Grade 2 Chilukki Stakes on Saturday at Churchill.

Perfection is elusive, even for the very best.

Affirmed never figured to have a perfect record, what with Alydar breathing down his neck every time he turned around. And even if Spectacular Bid had somehow sidestepped those two losses to inferior creatures at age 2 and then found a way to overcome the human errors weighing him down the day he failed in the Belmont Stakes, he could have tried the 1979 Jockey Club Gold Cup a thousand times, and still he would have lost to Affirmed.

Obsessive, reverent, laid back, indulgent -- the team behind the unbeaten mare reflects her quirky brilliance.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Three times, Goldikova has flown across the Atlantic Ocean from France to the United States. Twice she has gone home a Breeders' Cup Mile winner. If it happens again this year - and this will almost certainly be Goldikova's last trip overseas - the mighty miler housed in a modest, plain-bay body will make history.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It was a busy Thursday morning for Breeders’ Cup Turf favorite Workforce, who galloped and had a short breeze on the Churchill turf course. But the condition of that turf course still troubles Workforce’s connections, and Teddy Grimthorpe, racing manager for Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms, said after training hours that Workforce’s participation in the Turf remained in doubt.

“It’s still a possibility,” Grimthorpe said when asked if Workforce still could be scratched because of what his connections consider to be hard ground.

For analysis of Saturday's races, including the Breeders' Cup Classic, Click Here »

Daily Racing Form's Steven Crist and Mike Watchmaker handicap the six races on Friday’s Breeders’ Cup card at Churchill Downs.

Marathon

Juvenile Fillies Turf

LEXINGTON, Ky. − Runnymede Farm was founded in 1867, and in the ensuing 143 years there aren’t many things its owners, the Clay family, haven’t accomplished in the world of Thoroughbred breeding and racing. But this weekend they’re about to do something they’ve never done before: run a horse in a Breeders’ Cup race.

LAS VEGAS – Breeders’ Cup Weekend is feeling like Kentucky Derby Days of old.

Say what? Let me explain.

Back as far as anyone I could find could remember, the Kentucky Derby was the biggest draw here in Vegas for horseplayers every year on the First Saturday in May. Especially before widespread simulcasting came about, Vegas was known as Churchill Downs West as fans and bettors came here to celebrate the Run for the Roses and get in on the action.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. Indian Gracey was to be scratched from the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Friday because of soreness in her right front foot, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said Thursday morning.

Hollendorfer first noticed the problem on Wednesday morning, but wanted to wait a day to see if the filly responded to treatment. At the time, Hollendorfer thought there was a chance she would respond and make the race. But by Thursday morning, he realized he was running out of time, and decided to pass.