ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Jay Robbins says Tiznow is being stabled at Belmont Park to run in Saturday's $4 million Breeders' Cup Classic.
But judging by the regimen Robbins put Tiznow through on Sunday morning, one wonders if Robbins is actually pointing the 2000 Horse of the Year toward the New York City Marathon.
ELMONT, N.Y. - In a shocking development just one week before the Oct. 27 Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships at Belmont Park, the 3-year-old filly Unbridled Elaine, who is scheduled to run in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff, was removed from the barn of trainer David Vance and was returned to her original trainer, Dallas Stewart.
ELMONT, N.Y. - An eerie ground fog partially obscured training activity around the half-mile pole and quarter pole until shortly after 7 a.m. Saturday but by the time training hours had ended it was perfectly clear that all six of the morning's Breeders' Cup workers are coming up to their races in top form.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Fantastic Light was the first horse named by Godolphin Racing Inc. as a candidate for the $4 million Breeders' Cup Classic on Oct. 27 at Belmont Park. Sakhee did not enter the picture for Godolphin until after his victory earlier this month in the Arc de Triomphe. And though Fantastic Light has been assumed as the most likely of the two to go in the Classic, with the other going in the $2 million Turf, neither worked on the dirt on Friday morning like a horse who would cause Bobby Frankel to lose sleep.
ELMONT, N.Y. - The number is laughable. Mind-numbingly laughable. Truth must be stranger than fiction because how else could you explain that a Hall of Famer like Bobby Frankel is the worst trainer in Breeders' Cup history?
Not worst in purse earnings, mind you. His horses have earned $3,479,000, placing him 11th among trainers. But Frankel has run 36 horses in the Breeders' Cup, and not one of them has won. Only three trainers have run more horses in the Breeders' Cup than Frankel, and all of them have won at least five races. No one has a worse won-loss record.
ELMONT, N.Y. - No horse has won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies with fewer than three previous starts. For those who fear that Bella Bellucci cannot become the first to win with just two prior races, jockey Gary Stevens will try to put your mind at ease.
"Normally, I'd say experience would be a big factor," said Stevens, who has worked Bella Bellucci in the mornings and ridden her once in the afternoon. "But this filly's got a lot of training under her. She's been ready to run for probably 2 1/2 months."
ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer David Hofmans may be getting fitted for the black hat again.
In 1997, Hofmans sent out Touch Gold to defeat Silver Charm in the Belmont Stakes, denying racing its 12th Triple Crown winner. The year before, Hofmans saddled Alphabet Soup to victory in the Breeders' Cup Classic, putting a damper on the final race of the brilliant Cigar.
ELMONT, N.Y. - The filly and mare turf division is wide open, and that is not lost on the connections of most of the contenders in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf, including Bobby Frankel, who owns and trains Starine.
"Whoever wins this race will be the filly and mare champion," said Frankel. "And she certainly deserves that chance."
Frankel's assertion has history on its side. Both Soaring Softly and Perfect Sting, winners of the first two renewals of the Filly and Mare Turf, won Eclipse Awards.
ELMONT, N.Y. - The death of Unbridled on Friday was particularly poignant to those here at Belmont Park, where Unbridled won the 1990 Breeders' Cup Classic, and where his daughter Exogenous and granddaughter Unbridled Elaine will attempt to win
the $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff on Oct. 27.
Exogenous, according to trainer Scotty Schulhofer, is typical of most offspring of Unbridled. They are large, lanky horses, reflective of their sire, and they tend to improve as they get older and the distances of their races increase.
ELMONT, N.Y. - If you happen to see a striking-looking chestnut horse, with splotches of white on his face, being coaxed by his exercise rider to get a move on during training hours, it's probably Delaware Township.
Forest Hills winner Delaware Township, one of the major contenders in the $1 million Sprint, has a mind of his own, according to his connections.
Peter Lacey, who has galloped the 5-year-old Delaware Township for much of this year, said he allots at least 40 minutes for getting the horse to the track and through his gallops, and then back to the barn.
