Del Mar
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 58
Track: Fast
Turf: Firm
DEL MAR, Calif. - It was a cold, damp, dreary morning at Del Mar on Tuesday. While the weather perhaps was a bit uncomfortable for the locals, it must have made the large European contingent on hand for the 2021 Breeders’ Cup feel right at home.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Estilo Talentoso is out of Saturday’s $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Del Mar due to an issue with her right fore, according to trainer Juan Arriagada, reducing the field for the $1 million race to five.
“She’s a little off in her right front,” Arriagada said. “It’s nothing serious but the state [veterinarian] is very strict here and they would prefer to take her out of the race.”
Four years ago, the Breeders’ Cup came to Del Mar for the first time, and Gun Runner came to Del Mar to repel his challengers and draw clear to a 2 1/4-length victory in the Classic, locking up the 2017 Horse of the Year title.
“In some ways, it feels like it was just yesterday,” said David Fiske, racing and farm manager for Ron Winchell’s Winchell Thoroughbreds, which campaigned Gun Runner with Three Chimneys Farm. “I’ve re-watched that race from time to time, and it’s better than any antidepressant I’ve ever been prescribed.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – Things went well, not spectacularly, for European 2-year-olds at the previous Del Mar Breeders’ Cup in 2017.
Now, the 2-year-old races all come Friday, but then they were spread between Friday and Saturday, and the Juvenile Turf Sprint didn’t yet exist.
Mendelssohn, trained by Aidan O’Brien, won the Juvenile Turf but the other Euros were fifth, sixth, ninth, 10th, and 11th. In the Juvenile Fillies Turf, overseas runners managed only third, seventh, eighth, 11th, 13th, and 14th, that last-place finisher the O’Brien-trained favorite, Happily.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Ain’t Easy on Monday was not entered in Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies when she jogged unsatisfactorily for trainer Phil D’Amato, and she was subsequently discovered to have a small chip in her left front ankle and will undergo arthroscopic surgery, D’Amato said Tuesday morning at Del Mar.
At the beginning of September, when shipping agents were starting the process of planning flights from the East Coast to California for the Breeders’ Cup, trainer Chad Brown told them to save him six or eight spots on the flight.
“It’ll probably be more like six,” Brown recalled saying.
Between Sept. 25 and Oct. 17, Brown won 23 races, 11 of which were stakes – nine graded – and sent out a couple of impressive maiden winners.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Jack Christopher, the 9-5 morning-line favorite, drew the inside, and Corniche, the 5-2 second choice, drew the outside in a field of 12 drawn Monday for Friday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Del Mar.
Friday, billed as Future Stars Friday, comprises five of the 14 Breeders’ Cup races run over two days.
Del Mar
Weather: CloudyTemp: 58°Track: Fast
By Mike Welsch
DEL MAR, Calif. – The first sightings of the New York-based Breeders’ Cup contenders along with the European contingent just out of quarantine highlighted training hours Monday at Del Mar, with the action on the racetrack taking place as a prelude to entries for all 14 Breeders’ Cup races being drawn in the paddock several hours later.
DEL MAR, Calif. – So much attention in the week leading up to the Breeders’ Cup is on how well the horses fare in their final workouts a week out from their race.
In that regard, little attention will be paid to American Sanctuary and Tough to Tame entering Friday’s $2 million Juvenile as trainer Chris Davis opted not to give either horse an official timed workout a week out from the race.
DEL MAR, Calif. – When Medina Spirit came back to the winner’s circle after capturing the Awesome Again Stakes last month at Santa Anita, trainer Bob Baffert rushed to the track to pat the horse on the neck, and when speaking about him afterward, his voice caught.
“I get emotional talking about him because he gives his all,” Baffert said in a recent interview. “I love that about him. He’s tough. He’ll run hard.”
