As a member of owner Frank Stronach's team for more than a decade, Danny Vella played a significant role in the development of Breeders' Cup winners Awesome Again, Perfect Sting, and Macho Uno for other trainers.
Having parted company with Stronach and become a public trainer, Vella hopes to enjoy some Breeders' Cup success of his own with the promising Knights Templar, who looms an intriguing contender in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies.
The presence of the undefeated Lost in the Fog figured to make the Sprint one of the feature attractions on this year's Breeders' Cup card. The six-furlong Sprint could take on additional importance, however, with trainer Bob Baffert's announcement Wednesday that Roman Ruler is now being considered for the race.
Baffert said he was leaning toward the Sprint rather than the $4 million Breeders' Cup Classic with Roman Ruler after the 3-year-old worked a half-mile in 47 seconds at Santa Anita on Wednesday.
Hurricane Run, the winner of the Oct. 2 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in France, has been withdrawn from consideration for the Oct. 29 Breeders' Cup Turf at Belmont Park, according to the Racing Post.
According to a statement by trainer Andre Fabre, Hurricane Run has coughed twice since his winning run in the Arc. Fabre issued the statement through the colt's owner, Coolmore Stud.
After his Arc triumph, Hurricane Run was posted as the 5-2 favorite for the BC Turf by Daily Racing Form's Mike Watchmaker.
ELMONT, N.Y. - The connections of Afleet Alex have pulled the plug on getting the Preakness and Belmont Stakes winner to the Breeders' Cup.
A set of X-rays taken over the weekend revealed that Afleet Alex's fracture in his left ankle was not 100 percent healed. Though trainer Tim Ritchey said he expects Afleet Alex to return to the races - possibly later this year, in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile - he wrote in a posting on afleetalex.com that time had run out on trying to make the $4 million Breeders' Cup Classic on Oct. 29.
For the second straight year, the Breeders' Cup Classic is shaping up as the defining race for Horse of the Year.
Recent impressive victories by older horses Borrego, Rock Hard Ten, and Saint Liam - all of whom are scheduled for the $4 million Classic on Oct. 29 at Belmont Park - and the possibility that Afleet Alex will join them puts the Classic on par with last year's race in terms of year-end importance.
Many have tried to usurp her, and some have been better on the day, but for the past three seasons, Ashado has been at or near the top of her division, compiling a remarkable record of achievement. Her victory in last week's Beldame Stakes was her seventh in a Grade 1 race, and surely makes her the favorite for the second straight year in the Breeders' Cup Distaff, in which she is the defending champion.
Craig Dollase hopes that California shippers have the same luck this weekend at Belmont Park as they had last weekend, when Borrego and Taste of Paradise won key Grade 1 stepping-stones to the Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships.
March 24, April 9, and Aug. 13. Those are the days the trainer Don Chatlos Jr. won his three races in 2005. But the year is not a loss. The year, in fact, is really just beginning.
Singletary, Chatlos's lifeline since he went out on his own as a head trainer, makes his first start in 10 weeks on Saturday in the Oak Tree Mile at Santa Anita. A strong showing, and Singletary will be back in the Breeders' Cup, trying to join Lure and Miesque as the only horses to win consecutive editions of the Mile.
Top European trainer Aidan O'Brien is planning on sending two runners - Ace and Powerscourt - to the $2 million Breeders' Cup Turf at Belmont Park on Oct. 29, but who they will face is unclear three weeks before the race.
The field for the BC Turf will include such major stakes winners as Better Talk Now, the defending champion; Shakespeare, who won the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Belmont Park last Saturday; and Azamour, the winner of the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes in England in July.
Even as First Samurai was winning his first three races with authority, trainer Frank Brothers felt his horse could have done it more professionally.
In winning an allowance race and the Grade 1 Hopeful at Saratoga, First Samurai displayed a tendency to lug in during the stretch run. So in the six weeks between the Hopeful and Saturday's Grade 1 Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park, Brothers has been training the colt with a purpose.
