Precious Kitten, the multiple Grade 1 winner who was second in the First Lady Stakes at Keeneland on Oct. 3 in her most recent start, will face males for the first time in her career in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Mile at Santa Anita on Oct. 25, trainer Bobby Frankel said Wednesday.
Frankel said he wants to keep Precious Kitten racing a mile on turf and will pass on a start in the $2 million BC Filly and Mare Turf going 1o1/4 miles at Santa Anita on Oct. 24.
PARIS - With Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Zarkava through for the season, the Breeders' Cup Turf will lack a little luster this year without the world's best 1 1/2-mile horse. The Aga Khan's brilliant 3-year-old filly is light years ahead of anything that will be running in the Turf, which will suffer from her absence.
The Breeders' Cup has added 10-cent superfectas to the betting menu for the Ladies' Classic on Oct. 24 and the Classic on Oct. 25 after initially dropping the bets to focus attention on the super high five wager on both races, the organization announced on Tuesday.
Ken Kirchner, a consultant who oversees the Breeders' Cup's wagering programs, said that racing fans had lodged criticisms over the past week since learning that superfectas would not be available on the two races. The Breeders' Cup announced its betting menu last week.
The Breeders' Cup will randomly select approximately half of the horses that are pre-entered in the event's 14 races at Santa Anita Park in Southern California on Oct. 24-25 for out-of-competition drug tests designed to detect the use of powerful blood-doping drugs, officials of the organization have said.
Commentator, the runaway winner of the Whitney Stakes and Massachusetts Handicap this year, will not race in this years Breeders Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Oct. 25 and may not race again until next year, trainer Nick Zito said on Tuesday.
Zito said Commentator, owned by Tracy Farmer, had taken too long to recover from his last race, the Massachusetts Handicap on Sept. 20 at Suffolk Downs.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Music Note is already in. Cocoa Beach might join her. And if Little Belle runs well on Sunday in the Grade 1, $500,000 Spinster Stakes at Keeneland, she could give Sheikh Mohammed's Godolphin Racing three runners in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic on Oct. 24 at Santa Anita's Oak Tree meeting.
Little Belle has not been as sharp recently as she was earlier this year, when she scored the biggest win of her career at Keeneland.
On July 28, Cost of Freedom was racing under a $50,000 claiming tag. Just two months later, he's among the leading contenders for the Breeders' Cup Sprint following Saturday's half-length victory over division leader Street Boss in the Grade 1 Ancient Title at Santa Anita.
The final round of potential preps for the $1 million Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint comes this weekend, with the Nearctic Stakes at Woodbine likely to have the most impact.
Heros Reward, the Maryland standout trained by Dale Capuano, is the probable favorite for the six-furlong Nearctic, a Grade 2 turf race also expected to get Turf Sprint hopefuls True to Tradition, Storm Treasure, Mulmur, Starticus, The Great Caruso, Quietly Mine, and Starvinsky. The Nearctic will be part of the ESPN broadcast emanating from Woodbine on Saturday.
Trainer Mike Mitchell has three horses pointing for the Breeders' Cup, and two of them are targeting the inaugural $500,000 Marathon on Oct. 25. He said Big Booster and Church Service are both candidates for the 1 1/2-mile race. Mitchell's other BC hopeful, Delta Storm, is being pointed for the Turf Sprint.