ARCADIA, Calif. - Rafael Bejarano, currently the leading rider during the Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita, will replace Manoel Cruz aboard Smooth Air in Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Classic.

"This was strictly the owner's call," said Bennie Stutts Jr., who trains Smooth Air for Brian Burns’s Mount Joy Stables. "I’m sorry we won’t have Manny aboard since he knows the horse well. But we’re replacing him with the leading jockey at Santa Anita, one who knows that track very well, and I expect he’ll give our horse a great ride."

Jay Hovdey, Oct. 23:

This time of year, if you're out early and lean against the back rail of Santa Anita's 1 1/4-mile main track chute, you can face due east down the stretch and watch the first orange glow of the rising sun silhouette the stand of three tall palms tucked just inside the clubhouse turn. A few minutes later, you can't see a thing. Backlit figures come out of the glare, like gunfighters, unrecognizable until they're right on top of you. Who's that? It was Alex Solis.

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ARCADIA, Calif. - The inaugural running of the $1 million Turf Sprint may be the most competitive of the nine Breeders' Cup races to be run Saturday. To illustrate the point, consider the differences in two morning lines set for the race.

Santa Anita morning-linemaker Jeff Tufts installed Get Funky as a lukewarm choice at

ARCADIA, Calif. - By any measure, Grand Couturier ran the race of his life when he won the Grade 1 Turf Classic by more than 10 lengths at Belmont Park last month.

The beauty of that victory, his second Gradeo1 win this year, remains on the mind of trainer Robert Ribaudo in advance of Grand Couturier's start in the Saturday's $3 million Breeders' Cup Turf at Santa Anita.

"Everybody talks about him bouncing or coming off too big of an effort," Ribaudo said. "He hasn't shown us any signs of it."

ARCADIA, Calif. - Grand Adventure surprised trainer Mark Frostad when he went from being an unraced maiden in late August to a stakes winner by early October. A race such as the $1 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf at Santa Anita was far from Frostad's mind during the summer.

"Three months ago, I thought we might get a start in him this year," Frostad said. "He kept doing everything right, and here we are at the Breeders' Cup."

Grand Adventure is not just at the Breeders' Cup, he is at Santa Anita with an excellent chance to win the one-mile Juvenile Turf.

ARCADIA, Calif. - It won't be run on dirt, and last year, it wasn't even run at a mile. But the $1 million Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile got off to a rousing start in its inaugural running last year, with a bravura performance by Corinthian, and, in its second running Saturday, it is one of the most competitive Breeders' Cup races at Santa Anita.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Okay, so the 11 horses entered in the $2.18 million Breeders' Cup Mile won't completely fill the starting gate, which is unusual. Raven's Pass and Henrythenavigator, two crack Euro milers, came to Santa Anita, but start in the Breeders' Cup Classic, not the Mile. And generally, the crop of American milers this year has felt, at its hottest, tepid.

But don't make a bet against furious Mile excitement. The race should feature a wicked early pace, and is rife with stretch-runners. And keep in mind that a Mile favorite has not come in for eight years.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Midnight Lute has not won a race in a year, has started just once during the past 11 months, has been training in a bar shoe to protect a quarter crack on his left foot, will compete without blinkers for the first time in his career, and is winless over his home course at Santa Anita. So does the reigning champion have any chance of successfully defending his title in Saturday's Breeders' Cup Sprint?