ELMONT, N.Y. - Todd Pletcher and Richard Migliore are realists. As the trainer and jockey of Appleby Gardens, Pletcher and Migliore understand the daunting task at hand in Saturday's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies.
Every Breeders' Cup seems to draw at least one horse whose lifetime past performances take up an entire page.
This year that horse is Nuclear Debate, a battle-scarred Kentucky-bred who has had a well-traveled 45-race career. Among the several foreign countries he has raced in are England, Hong Kong, and Canada.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - A tendon injury will prevent Blazing Fury from starting in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Turf, making for the smallest field in the 19-year history of the race.
As of Tuesday, there were only eight horses remaining in the Turf. In 1986 at Santa Anita, there were nine starters in the Turf.
Blazing Fury was found to have a "10 percent tear" in the tendon ligament of his right foreleg on Tuesday at Belmont Park, according to trainer Jim Toner.
The injury was noticed after Blazing Fury returned from a gallop.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Is there a deeper Breeders' Cup race than the Filly and Mare Turf? At the top end sit defending champion Banks Hill, leading American Golden Apples, and the European star Islington. Far below, even the longest shots like Chopinina, Riskaverse, and Zenda can't be dismissed out of hand.
In between is a strong mid-section of contenders, horses like Starine, Owsley, and Dublino, whose odds probably won't reflect their chance of winning the Filly and Mare Turf.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Blazing Fury, the runner-up in the Turf Classic Invitational at Belmont Park on Sept. 29, has been withdrawn from Saturday's $2 million Breeders' Turf at Arlington Park because to a tendon injury.
Trainer Jim Toner said he noticed a problem with Blazing Fury's right foreleg following a gallop at Belmont Park on Tuesday.
"We want out for a gallop and when we came back we noticed a profile," Toner said. "We did an ultrasound right away and it shows a 10 percent tear in the tendon ligament. We had a problem.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - One of the reasons trainer Patrick Kelly sent Evening Attire to Arlington Park well in advance of Saturday's Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships was to allow the Jockey Club Gold Cup winner to get acclimated to both the track and the weather.
Evening Attire has thrived here, making a positive impression for the past week, and he continued that trend on Monday, when he completed his serious work for the $4 million Classic with an easy five-furlong workout in 1:02 with exercise rider Danny Vogt.
ELMONT, N.Y. - He has a career winning percentage of .237, trained the second most winners in Breeders' Cup history, and has won at least one Grade 1 stakes for each of the 17 years he has worked for the Phipps family.
Still, trainer Shug McGaughey is not content.
"I'm very disappointed that we haven't been more competitive than we have been in the last four or five years," McGaughey said during a recent interview.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Shug McGaughey on Monday decided to shake things up a little bit for Storm Flag Flying in her final workout before Saturday's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies.
McGaughey worked Storm Flag Flying in company with jockey John Velazquez rather than by herself with an exercise rider. The change seemed to do Storm Flag Flying some good, as she cruised four furlongs in 48.92 seconds, getting her last quarter in 23.87 seconds. She galloped out another furlong in 12.05 seconds. It was a move superior to her three-furlong breeze last week.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Very little needed to be done with Azeri following her victory three weeks ago in the Lady's Secret Breeders' Cup Handicap, but her subsequent works have so impressed Laura de Seroux that the trainer heads into Saturday's $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff full of confidence.
"Everything is perfect. Azeri is dead fit," de Seroux said Monday, after Azeri worked three furlongs at Southern California's San Luis Rey Downs training center in 35.80 seconds, a move de Seroux said was "absolutely stunning."
Despite his upset loss in last Saturday's Darley Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket, Tomahawk was to make the trans-Atlantic flight Tuesday from Ireland with the intention of running in Saturday's Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Arlington Park, trainer Aidan O'Brien said.
O'Brien said Tomahawk, runner-up in the Dewhurst, and Marino Marini, who finished seventh in that race, would accompany his confirmed Juvenile runners Hold That Tiger and Van Nistelrooy to Chicago. O'Brien said his fifth Juvenile pre-entrant, Ontario, would most likely remain in Ireland.
