The sudden retirement of Benny the Bull, the recent inactivity of several key members in the division, and a lack of experience over artificial racing surfaces by a majority of the top contenders has created an air of uncertainty about this year's Breeders' Cup Sprint. Some of the uncertainty should be cleared up by the end of racing on Saturday.
The six-furlong Sprint will be decided on the Pro-Ride surface at Santa Anita on Oct. 25.
ARCADIA, Calif. - With all the fanfare of a visiting dignitary, Curlin arrived at Santa Anita on Sunday, and while his connections have yet to commit definitively to the Breeders' Cup Classic on Oct. 25, his presence at Santa Anita, coupled with an outstanding weekend of racing both at Santa Anita and Belmont Park, took interest in this year's Breeders' Cup out of idle and into overdrive.
ARCADIA, Calif. - With the sequence of Breeders' Cup races rejiggered for this year, the $2 million Ladies' Classic, annually one of the best races on the Saturday card but often overshadowed by the $5 million Classic, now is the premier event of the Friday card.
The odds of C Karma getting to any race, let alone a Breeders' Cup race, were certainly stacked against her after she was cut up badly in a paddock accident as a yearling in Florida.
Her Woodbine-based trainer, Greg De Gannes, said C Karma ran into a big metal gate during a lightning storm when she was turned out with several other yearlings.
"She got hung up on her legs," said De Gannes. "It took three to four months to get the wounds healed up to where you could even think about the next step of her career."
When North American horseplayers think "turf sprint," they usually think of a grass race at 5 or 5 1/2 furlongs. But given the unique layout of the Santa Anita turf track, the first two runnings of the $1 million Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (2008 and 2009) will be run at 6 1/2 furlongs on the famed downhill course.
Delosvientos, who remained unbeaten at 1 1/2 miles with his win in the $97,000 Point Given at Monmouth Park last Sunday, will not advance to the $500,000 Breeders' Cup Marathon for religious reasons, according to trainer Giuseppe Iadisernia.
Iadisernia is a Seventh-day Adventist, a faith that observes Saturday as the Sabbath and a day in which work should be minimal. Iadisernia said he had hoped the Marathon, a 1 1/2-mile race new to the Breeders' Cup, would be part of the Friday card on Oct. 24.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Having gotten a useful and successful race into Big Brown last Saturday at Monmouth Park, trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. can sit back and watch the last few rounds of Breeders' Cup prep races run without any feeling any pressure.
"We got ours, we're sitting and waiting," Dutrow said on a warm, breezy morning at Aqueduct, where he worked eight horses for upcoming races.
The Breeders' Cup will allow two horses to be entered as also-eligibles in each of its 14 races for the first time this year, the organization announced on Friday.
The Breeders' Cup had previously closed races at the time of entry, typically on the Wednesday before the race, and did not allow any horses to draw in if a horse was a late scratch. Under the new policy, two horses will be designated as also-eligibles at entry time and may move into a race as late as 7 a.m. on the Friday of the event weekend if there are any scratches before that time.
