LEXINGTON, Ky. – Battle lines are drawn, with strategy laid bare. Serengeti Empress will take an immediate fight Saturday to Gamine and whomever else dares to go barreling down the Keeneland backstretch on full throttle, making for what surely will be a memorable 14th running of the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.

Trainer Tom Amoss, as usual, has promised that Serengeti Empress will be taking no prisoners once the gates clang open.

“There are no secrets about our intentions,” said Amoss. “Speed is our strongest weapon and we intend to use it.”

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The complexion of Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland changed abruptly around 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday with the announcement that morning-line favorite Vekoma would scratch. Vekoma was coming into the race off dominating victories in the Grade 1 Carter and Grade 1 Metropolitan handicaps.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The outside post in a two-turn race is supposedly a disadvantage, but not in the case of Monomoy Girl.

Five times in her 14 prior starts, Monomoy Girl has been assigned the outer post – and she got it again Saturday, post 10, for what figures to be the final race of a storybook career. The 5-year-old Tapizar mare has never lost from “way out there,” and trainer Brad Cox is hoping the pattern holds when she faces Swiss Skydiver and eight others going 1 1/8 miles in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Keeneland.

Only 72 miles separate Keeneland from Churchill Downs, but when a Breeders’ Cup comes to Kentucky, it might as well be another universe when it comes to the $1 million Dirt Mile.

At Churchill Downs, the Dirt Mile is run around one turn. At Keeneland, it’s a two-turn race. The ability to handle that configuration looms large over Saturday’s sixth race, because the acknowledged Dirt Mile favorite, the speedy Complexity, is unproven around two turns, while his most serious challenger, Knicks Go, comes off a track-record-setting performance going two turns at Keeneland.

Authentic and Tiz the Law are the top candidates to be named champion 3-year-old male. Improbable, Maximum Security, and Tom’s d’Etat are the leaders for champion older dirt male. They make up half the field in the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday at Keeneland, and a win by any of them could also bring the title of Horse of the Year. As the last race on Saturday’s 12-race card, and the last of the 14 Breeders’ Cup races to be run Friday and Saturday, the Classic is a compelling final act to this 37th Breeders’ Cup.

Sky Sports Racing senior analyst Jamie Lynch is offering a complete rundown of the Breeders' Cup European shippers in our Breeders’ Cup Guide. This excerpt covers the Juvenile Turf Sprint. To get coverage of the rest of the races click here.

JUVENILE TURF SPRINT

MIGHTY GURKHA

Style: prominent racer

Wednesday, Nov. 4

Keeneland

Weather: Clear

Track: Fast

Turf: Good

Temp.: 47°

:: BREEDERS’ CUP 2020: See DRF’s special section with top contenders, odds, comments, news, and more for each division

LEXINGTON, KY. – Team Baffert is in the house.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kurt Becker had something of a harrowing experience with the coronavirus and feels fortunate to be back calling the races Friday and Saturday at Keeneland.

Becker, the only race-caller in Keeneland history, was diagnosed on Oct. 23 as positive for the virus, forcing him to miss the final day (Oct. 24) of the 17-day fall meet. He was cleared earlier this week by health officials in his hometown of Altamont, Ill., and in Fayette County, Ky., to return to the announcer’s booth for the two Breeders’ Cup dates.

Vekoma, the morning-line favorite for Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland, will scratch from that race after spiking a temperature Tuesday night, trainer George Weaver said Wednesday morning.

Weaver said the horse was treated with antibiotics to lower the temperature and he was doing better Wednesday morning, but he could not run.

It is expected that the horse’s racing career is over as he is scheduled to stand at stud in 2021 at Spendthrift Farm in Lexington, Ky.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Any other day, these might all be headliners. But when contrasted against the Breeders’ Cup, an early lineup of supporting events Friday at Keeneland will have to serve as mere preludes.