Our New Recruit will train up to the Breeders' Cup Sprint, trainer John Sadler said, and on Wednesday at Santa Anita he worked four furlongs in 48 seconds.
Tyler Baze, who was aboard for the move, will have a difficult decision to make later this month, when he has to choose between Our New Recruit and Kela in the Breeders' Cup on Oct. 30.
"I haven't given up that call yet," said Ivan Puhich, agent for Baze. "It's a little early yet."
A month before the 2003 Breeders' Cup Juvenile, few owners held a stronger hand than Mahmoud Fustok's Buckram Oak Farm, which had Hopeful winner Eurosilver and Lane's End Breeders' Futurity winner Silver Wagon.
Unfortunately, Silver Wagon got sick and Eurosilver bucked his shins, and Buckram Oak had to sit out the Juvenile.
If, as trainer Julio Canani suggests, Sweet Catomine will improve going longer, than she should emerge from Saturday's Grade 2 Oak Leaf Stakes at Santa Anita as the West Coast's top prospect for the $1 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies.
Sweet Catomine was good enough to win the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante at seven furlongs despite being a maiden. The Oak Leaf is run at 1 1/16 miles around two turns, which Canani says is perfect for her.
"She looked like a router from the beginning," Canani said.
Racing fans eager to see hot Breeders' Cup Classic hopefuls make one final appearance before gathering Oct. 30 at Lone Star Park need not bother tuning in to television. Nor will it help to attend major prep races slated for the next couple weeks across the country. What's required is breakfast trackside and a knowledge of saddle towels and horse markings: In 2004, the most significant Classic preps take place during morning training hours.
Most of the talk leading up to last year's $1.5 Breeders' Cup Juvenile was about the horses who weren't participating in the race. Graded stakes winners Birdstone, Eurosilver, and Ruler's Court all skipped the Juvenile for reasons not related to injury. A fourth graded winner, Silver Wagon, missed the race due to shin problems.
ELMONT, N.Y. - If Azeri and Adoration start in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff at Lone Star Park on Oct. 30, it will be the first time two returning winners run in the race.
Before any Breeders' Cup match-up, Azeri, who won the 2002 Distaff, and Adoration, who won the race last year, will meet in Keeneland's Grade 1, $500,000 Spinster on Oct. 10.
Patrick Biancone doesn't want any excuses. So, he isn't taking any chances.
Biancone said Sense of Style, the top contender for the $1 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, would make her next start in the $400,000 Alcibiades at Keeneland on Oct. 8. Biancone said he chose the Grade 2 Alcibiades over the Frizette at Belmont Park on Oct. 9 because he wants Sense of Style to have a two-turn race before she starts in the Juvenile Fillies on Oct. 30 at Lone Star Park.
The Frizette, a Grade 1 worth $500,000, is run at 1 1/16 miles, but around one turn.
Pico Central will return to the site of his biggest career win next month to take on Speightstown for the first time in the Grade 1, $500,000 Vosburgh Stakes at Belmont Park. The race is one of three major preps remaining for the $1 million Breeders' Cup Sprint at Lone Star Park on Oct. 30.
The BC Sprint has long been the goal for Speightstown, but it is not a given for Pico Central, a Brazilian-bred who would have to be supplemented at a cost of $200,000.
Considering the substantial impact that European racing normally carries toward the $2 million Breeders' Cup Turf, it would be premature to compile a list of serious contenders prior to the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.
The Arc, to be run Oct. 3 at Longchamp in France, figures to do its normal job of helping to decide who's coming for the Turf and who's not. Among the possible starters for the Arc, four or five horses could conceivably run back in the Turf. There also are another five or six Euros who probably will skip the Arc and could run instead in the Turf.
The $1.5 million Breeders' Cup Mile is a perennial fan favorite primarily because of its well-earned reputation as a handicapping smorgasbord. The race habitually oversubscribes, the full field of 14 invariably is evenly matched, the favorite is usually a fat price, and the myriad factors that go into the actual running of the race almost always appeal to the sensibilities of racing fans.
The Mile once again looks as untamed as the great state in which it will be run for the first time.
