Trainer Wayne Catalano’s barn has been a hotbed for 2-year-old fillies the last several years, and little has changed heading into next month’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Churchill Downs. Catalano could have as many as two starters in the Nov. 5 race that he won last year with She Be Wild, and in 2006 with Dreaming of Anna.
“We’ll try for a third one,” said Catalano.
Sure, the Breeders’ Cup Classic has a purse of $5 million, which makes the $1 million purse of the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile look rather paltry by comparison. But the 1 1/4-mile Classic also has a Formidable Foursome to overcome in Zenyatta, Blame, Quality Road, and Lookin At Lucky. The Dirt Mile has … well, it doesn’t have horses like that.
But it isn’t the disparate level of competition that has trainer Richard Mandella leaning “80 percent” toward the Dirt Mile over the Classic with Crown of Thorns. What does is distance and timing.
Leading up to the Breeders' Cup, we take a look back at some key prep races and try to come up with some contenders.
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Espoir City, the Japanese standout who will run in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic, arrived in Kentucky well before dawn Tuesday following a lengthy journey from Japan by way of Chicago and was placed under a 48-hour quarantine at Churchill Downs.
Espoir City has won 11 of 20 starts and earned nearly $6 million. The 5-year-old horse is by Gold Allure, a son of Sunday Silence. Trainer Akio Adachi and jockey Tetsuzo Sato will be assisted by an interpreter from the International Racing Bureau for the Breeders’ Cup.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Thursday’s third race at Hollywood Park will determine how ambitious owner Greg Unruh and trainer Mike Mitchell will be in coming weeks with Where’s the Remote.
Where’s the Remote, 4, will start favored in an allowance race over 1 1/4 miles on turf on Thursday evening. A win could lead to a start in the $500,000 Breeders’ Cup Marathon over 1 3/4 miles on dirt at Churchill Downs on Nov. 5. A back-up plan is the $250,000 Hollywood Turf Cup over 1 1/2 miles on Nov. 13.
“We still have both races in our sights,” Mitchell said on Tuesday.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Richard’s Kid, the winner of the Pacific Classic and Goodwood Stakes in his last two starts, will not start in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs on Nov. 6, and he will be sent to Dubai for racing this winter, trainer Bob Baffert said on Tuesday.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The milestones have arrived on an annual basis for Joel Rosario.
In 2006, he moved to the United States from his native Dominican Republic and made an early impression at Golden Gate Fields, finishing second to Russell Baze in two meets there. He moved to Southern California the following year, won his first graded stakes in 2008, and last year won three riding titles in Southern California and a Breeders’ Cup race, the Sprint, on the outsider Dancing in Silks.
MIAMI – Awesome Feather was unquestionably the star of the show on Saturday’s Festival of the Sun card, completing her sweep of the filly division of the Florida Stallion Stakes with another one-sided victory in the $350,000 My Dear Girl. In the process, she became the fourth and final Calder-based horse to earn a trip to Churchill Downs for the Breeders’ Cup on Nov. 5-6.
A final decision on the Breeders’ Cup Turf status of Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Workforce will not be made until Saturday at the earliest after trainer Michael Stoute has seen the 3-year-old son of King’s Best work at Newmarket.
Zenyatta's trainer, John Shirreffs, gives a press conference on Friday at Keeneland discussing Zenyatta's career and her preparations to defend her title in the Breeders' Cup Classic at Churchill Downs on Nov. 5-6.
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