ARCADIA, Calif. - Red Rocks, the last horse to beat reigning Horse of the Year Curlin, will start in the $3 million Breeders' Cup Turf at Santa Anita on Saturday without a prep race in more than three months, a reputation for failing to put together consecutive wins, and an owner uncertain what to expect.
Better Talk Now, Big Booster, and Lord Admiral ought to get together for coffee and a bull session somewhere on the Santa Anita backstretch. This grizzled trio has seen more and done more than most of these upstart Breeders' Cup horses could even dream about.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Zenyatta has won all eight of her starts, usually so effortlessly it hardly seems as if she's trying. Her trainer, John Shirreffs, is running out of words to describe the unbeaten filly. And on Friday, after Zenyatta worked six furlongs here at Hollywood Park in 1:11.66 to complete her preparation for next Friday's Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic at Santa Anita, Shirreffs could only shake his head in amazement and say, "Phew."
"She's just beautiful to watch," Shirreffs added. "It's amazing to watch her. You don't know where her stride ends."
The richest 2-year-old pre-entered for a Breeders' Cup race next weekend needed a break to gain a berth for Saturday's $1 million Juvenile Turf.
Donativum, trained in England by John Gosden, was the first alternate for the BC Juvenile Turf and only earned a spot into the field when trainer Bob Baffert withdrew Del Conte from consideration because of an ankle injury on Thursday.
New York invader Doremifasollatido gave her connections an indication that Santa Anita's Pro-Ride surface won't be an issue for her in the $2 million Juvenile Fillies by working seven furlongs in 1:25.60 over it Friday morning. Exercise rider Kelvin Tahal was aboard for the move, the quickest of three at the distance.
As good as he is, Rebellion needs things just right. He has won 4 of 9 starts on a synthetic surface and finished in the money seven times. He has won 3 of 10 on turf and finished in the money seven times. Pretty similar. It is distance, though, where Rebellion is particularly finicky.
For the Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita, Rebellion was pre-entered this week in both the Turf Sprint, at 6 1/2 furlongs on Santa Anita's hillside turf course, and the Dirt Mile, both next Saturday. The distance of neither race is ideal, according to trainer Graham Motion.
Raven's Pass will have a new rider in the Classic in the shape of Frankie Dettori. The Queen Elizabeth II Stakes winner had been ridden by Jimmy Fortune in all but his first career start for trainer John Gosden, but Fortune has begged off Raven's Pass for the Classic as the race will come the day after the English rider completes a 10-day suspension. Feeling that he would not be fit for a race of such importance, Fortune will stay home instead.
Steve Leving, the racing manager for owner Frank Calabrese, was just trying to acquire a runner for the Arlington meet when he engineered the purchase of a maiden claimer named Sugar Mom over the summer.
"Stevie got her off a bloodstock agent because he thought she'd like the Poly and grass," trainer Wayne Catalano explained Friday.
What Leving, Catalano, and Calabrese ended up with is a Breeders' Cup horse. Sugar Mom won a $40,000 maiden claimer at Arlington in her first start carrying the Calabrese colors, and things have only snowballed from there.
ARCADIA, Calif. - With more races than ever, 14, now encompassing two days, the Breeders' Cup has moved far beyond its original concept of a single day with just seven races. On Thursday, the Breeders' Cup had a symbolic acknowledgment of its growth by doing a complete 180.
A total of 180 horses, led by the 2007 Horse of the Year, Curlin, were announced on Thursday as a record number of pre-entries for the 25th Breeders' Cup, to be held Oct. 24-25 at Santa Anita.
