ELMONT, N.Y. - Balto Star, who has won on both dirt and turf this year, will be pointed to the Breeders' Cup Mile on grass, trainer Todd Pletcher said Friday. The 3-year-old gelding will also be pre-entered for the $2 million Turf, but the Mile will be made first preference.
Balto Star has raced only once on turf, winning a money allowance race at a mile last month at Saratoga.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The racing career of Lazy Slusan, who won two Grade 1 races this year, appears to be over.
On Friday, owner-trainer John Dolan said he was leaning toward not pre-entering Lazy Slusan on Monday for the $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff at Belmont Park on Oct. 27. Regardless of whether she runs in that race, she is scheduled to be sold at the Keeneland November breeding stock sale on Nov. 5.
On Oct. 7, Lazy Slusan finished ninth of 10 in the Grade 1 Spinster Stakes at Keeneland, a key prep to the Breeders' Cup Distaff. "She threw in a clunker," Dolan said.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Blueprint remains on schedule for the Breeders' Cup Turf after working a mile on turf in 1:45 on Friday.
"He switched leads and finished well," trainer Bob Hess Jr. said. "He's ready on our end of it."
Hess said Blueprint, who won the San Luis Rey and Sunset handicaps this year, will train at Santa Anita until Oct. 23. A 6-year-old, Blueprint has not started since winning the Sunset at Hollywood Park in mid-July, and will be a longshot in the Breeders' Cup Turf.
Lailani, the Flower Bowl winner and probable favorite for the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf, stretched her legs Friday morning with a half-mile breeze in 52.22 seconds over Belmont's main track.
It was the first timed move for Lailani since she won the Flower Bowl on Sept. 29, her seventh consecutive victory after beginning her career with two losses. According to William Knight, the assistant trainer to Ed Dunlop, Lailani's victory in the Flower Bowl puts her ahead of schedule for the Breeders' Cup.
Playing 'n Gold, winner of the Kentucky Cup Juvenile Fillies last month, was euthanized Sunday after becoming ill from an apparent skull fracture.
Trainer Bob Holthus said Playing 'n Gold, owned by Alan Braun and Ken English, apparently hit her head in the starting gate before her last start, the Oct. 5 Alcibiades Stakes, in which the Honour and Glory filly finished eighth of 11.
Holthus, a trainer for nearly 50 years, said the series of events that led to the filly's death were "freakish. I don't know if I've ever had anything like that happen to me."
ELMONT, N.Y. - His last three Breeders' Cup winners have returned $113.80, $67, and $41.20. D. Wayne Lukas, the winningest trainer in Breeders' Cup history, will attempt to light up the tote board once again this year when he sends out Orientate in the $4 million Breeders' Cup Classic on Oct. 27.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Nick Zito said on Thursday that Jorge Chavez will be back aboard Albert the Great in the Breeders' Cup Classic.
Chavez, who guided Albert the Great to victory in last year's Jockey Club Gold Cup and to three graded stakes wins this year, was replaced by Gary Sevens for last week's Gold Cup, where Albert finished fourth. Stevens has not made a commitment yet for the Classic.
Sakhee, rated by Timeform as Europe's top horse after his victory in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, will have his next race in the Breeders' Cup.
Sheikh Hamdan al Maktoum made the decision Thursday morning to send Sakhee to Belmont Park on Oct. 27 rather than to the Oct. 20 Champion Stakes at Newmarket. Like Fantastic Light, Sakhee will be pre-entered in both the Turf and the Classic, but it is a near certainty that Sakhee, a 4-year-old son of Bahri, will go in the Turf and Fantastic Light in the Classic.