LEXINGTON, Ky. - Trainer Doug O'Neill was praising Keeneland's new Polytrack surface on Friday morning after being able to work all five of his potential Breeders' Cup starters as scheduled despite showers that would likely have forced him to postpone the drills had he been stabled down the road at Churchill Downs.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - There is a saying in racing that suggests that for owners to succeed they need to surround themselves with the best company and place their horses in the worst. But owner Bruce Lunsford has excelled merely by following the first half of that strategy.

Trainer Jeremy Noseda made a most auspicious Breeders' Cup debut in 2004 when he shipped Wilko from England to Lone Star Park and upset the Breeders' Cup Juvenile at odds of 28-1. Last year, Noseda came to New York with his second-string miler, Majors Cast, who finished two lengths back while finishing fifth behind Artie Schiller in the Mile at odds of 20-1.

Saturday, at Churchill Downs, Noseda will saddle his third Breeders' Cup starter and the odds will be much lower while expectations will be much higher on Araafa in the $2 million Mile.

CHICAGO - It has become increasingly apparent that trainer Patrick Biancone intends to run Gorella, one of the best female turf horses in the country, in the Breeders' Cup Mile rather than the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf. Asi Siempre, another graded-stakes-class female in the Biancone arsenal, almost certainly is headed to the BC Distaff, though she, like Gorella, was entered in the Filly and Mare Turf, with the race listed as second preference.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Carl Nafzger became famous at the 1990 Kentucky Derby, not merely for training the winner of the race, but for having ABC-Sports capture his sweet, heartfelt interaction with elderly owner Frances Genter as Unbridled charged to the finish. Listen closely to his words, and it is a window into Nafzger's soul.

"Mrs. Genter, you just won the Kentucky Derby," he said. "You" - not "I," nor "we" - but "you." Nafzger had won it, too, but the ego was suppressed. He took far more joy in seeing a dream come true for a longtime client.

ELMONT, N.Y. - If you had told trainer Shug McGaughey in March that eight months later he would be going for his fourth win in the Breeders' Cup Distaff with Pine Island, he would have looked at you cross-eyed.

"This was the farthest thing from my mind," McGaughey said Thursday morning at Belmont Park. "She wasn't one that was high on our list. She was a big, tall, lanky kind of thing and she just sort of kept coming."

LOUISVILLE, Ky.- Commentator was fortunate to get into the starting lineup for this year's Breeders' Cup Sprint. And trainer Nick Zito is confident that Commentator, a Grade 1 winner, will reward the selection committee's confidence in his horse with a big performance.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - There were 121 horses pre-entered in this year's Breeders' Cup, the fourth-highest number in the 23-year history of the event, and though there are two past Breeders' Cup winners, a passel of European stars, a Kentucky Derby winner, and a record 18 pre-entries from one trainer, the day's focus will come down to one horse in the last of the eight races.

The $2 million Breeders' Cup Mile at Churchill Downs on Nov. 4 will have a distinctly European flavor. Of the 18 horses pre-entered, eight are based in Europe and 12 began their careers there.

Even the two leading chances based in the United States - Aragorn and Gorella - were stakes winners in Europe in 2005. Aragorn, expected to go favored, has won four graded stakes since May; Gorella has won three consecutive graded stakes.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Twelve horses were pre-entered Wednesday for the $3 million Breeders' Cup Turf, and the most compelling storyline is a familiar one for fans who have been following the turf division since springtime: English Channel will meet Cacique to settle what arguably has become the fiercest rivalry in any division this year.

In four meetings, English Channel, trained by Todd Pletcher, has finished ahead of Cacique twice, and Cacique has returned the favor on the other two occasions.