ARCADIA, Calif. - Bettors seeking a single for their multi-race wagers on Friday will have to look somewhere other than the $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies.
"If you're playing the pick six you got to go six or seven deep in there, there's no singles in there," said Bob Baffert, trainer of Juvenile Fillies contender Always a Princess. "Last year there was a single. I think we have a very good chance, but I don't take anything for granted."
ARCADIA, Calif. - Ventura and Informed Decision have met once, in April at Keeneland. Ventura lost by a head, and trainer Bobby Frankel was angry with the jockey.
"Bobby was a little upset with me that day," jockey Garrett Gomez said early this week, smiling at the memory.
"I moved too soon."
It is tough to ride a mare as quirky as Ventura, for a trainer as demanding as Frankel. But the rewards are big, and Friday at Santa Anita, Gomez and Ventura will try to win the $1 million Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint a second straight year for Frankel.
In an era when impetuous owners change trainers like they change socks, the decade-long association between the Gatsas family and the husband-and-wife trainer team of John and Tonja Terranova has endured. Through triumph and tragedy, the Gatsas-Terranova relationship has strengthened personally and professionally.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Just about everybody had joined the Breeders' Cup party at Santa Anita by training hours on Wednesday. Everybody, that is, except leading lady Zenyatta, who was due in from her Hollywood Park base later in the morning.
ARCADIA, Calif. - He is one of only four trainers who have won at least 5,000 races, and he ranks 10th all-time in purse money won. Those accomplishments have not been good enough to merit Jerry Hollendorfer a spot in Thoroughbred racing's Hall of Fame.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The battle cry all year for European standout Rip Van Winkle has been "feet don't fail me now." After his first tour of the Santa Anita main track Wednesday morning, trainer Aidan O'Brien said he was satisfied with the way Rip Van Winkle, who is scheduled to run in the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic on Saturday, is dealing with the latest problem in his troublesome feet.
"He's had issues throughout the year," the soft-spoken O'Brien said outside the quarantine barn in Santa Anita's stable area.
ARCADIA, Calif. - In her 13 previous victories, all against females, Zenyatta only once has faced more than seven rivals. That was in her debut, in which she beat 11 other maiden fillies. When she runs against males for the first time on Saturday in the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita's Oak Tree meeting, Zenyatta will have to beat the biggest field she has ever faced.
ARCADIA, Calif. Music Note, who last year raced in the shadow of Zenyatta, and Careless Jewel, who this year is racing in the shadow of Rachel Alexandra, are the top two choices on the morning line in the $2 million Breeders Cup Ladies Classic, to be run Friday during the Oak Tree meeting at Santa Anita.
Jon White, the morning-line maker at Santa Anita, has Music Note (9-5) the slight favorite over Careless Jewel (2-1). Rainbow View is the third choice at 6-1.
ARCADIA, Calif. - With only eight horses going postward in the Breeders' Cup Turf, the draw should have no effect whatsoever in the 1 1/2-mile contest, which starts halfway down Santa Anita's hillside course.
Installed as the 7-5 morning-line favorite, defending titleholder Conduit will start from post 2 with regular rider Ryan Moore aboard. It is significant to note that Moore has opted for Conduit over his Michael Stoute-trained stablemate Spanish Moon, who breaks from post 7.
