As with fruits, vegetables, and a Prince from Bel Air, fresh is best when it comes to Global Campaign.
He won his first start in January 2019. He won his comeback race in 2020, returning from a layoff of nearly nine months. And when he makes his next start, in the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 7 at Keeneland, he will not have run in two months, mirroring the schedule he had prior to his first stakes win, in last year’s Grade 3 Peter Pan.
Campanelle is undefeated in three starts racing in three countries, a schedule more commonly associated with top-class runners from Europe than an American-based 2-year-old filly.
Campanelle won a maiden special weight race on May 31 at Gulfstream Park, the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes on June 20 at Royal Ascot in England, and the Group 1 Prix Morny against males on Aug. 23 at Deauville, France. Those races have put Campanelle on schedule for the richest race of her career in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, a $1 million race at a mile on Nov. 6 at Keeneland.
Four days after the speedy C Z Rocket registered the second victory of what has become a five-race winning streak, it was with mixed emotions that trainer Peter Miller announced the retirement of his two-time Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Roy H. Four and a half months later, C Z Rocket will try to give Miller his third Sprint title in the last four years when he goes postward among the favorites in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 7 at Keeneland.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The likely favorites for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint all had their final prep races on the first weekend of September, but the final spots for a fringe player or two could still be earned Saturday in the Grade 2 Raven Run at Keeneland.
The Raven Run is restricted to 3-year-old fillies, whereas all other open preps toward the Filly and Mare Sprint already have been held. Venetian Harbor, in from California for Richard Baltas, is among the Raven Run entries, along with Four Graces and several other Filly and Mare Sprint hopefuls.
Swiss Skydiver’s weekend routine is straightforward. Saturday is workout day. Once a month, Saturday is race day.
“It’s a pretty simple program; it’s not complicated,” trainer Ken McPeek said this week from Churchill Downs, where Swiss Skydiver will work an easy half-mile Saturday, her first work since winning the Preakness Stakes. McPeek is looking for a time of about 50 seconds.
“It’s keeping her happy and letting her do what she feels like doing,” McPeek said.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Dayoutoftheoffice furthered her status among the divisional elite by winning the Grade 1 Frizette last Saturday at Belmont Park in a terrific follow-up to her breakthrough triumph in the Grade 3 Schuylerville in July.
The two-length Frizette score resulted in a 92 Beyer Speed Figure and places Dayoutoftheoffice among the core of favorites for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 6 at Keeneland, along with Princess Noor and Simply Ravishing. All three 2-year-old fillies are unbeaten in three starts.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The pace scenario of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff just got softer. Front-runner Fighting Mad, a Grade 1 winner in California, will skip the Distaff and aim for a stakes race in January.
“We’re going to pass,” Fighting Mad’s trainer Bob Baffert said Monday. “She had to have won her last start, and she didn’t. I was disappointed in her race. You can’t go into the Breeders’ Cup with hesitation.”
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Amid what’s supposedly a down period, Dale Romans sure does have a lot of bullets for the Breeders’ Cup.
Last year, Romans totaled his fewest number of wins, 36, since 1997 and his lowest stable earnings, $3.08 million, since 2002. With still two-plus months to go in 2020, his wins (30) and earnings ($2.55 million) are on pace to surpass 2019, but not by much – unless he has a big showing at the Nov. 6-7 Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland.
ELMONT, N.Y. - After Five, the favorite, and Second of July, the longshot, both seemed to be full of run nearing the top of the stretch of Sunday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Futurity at Belmont Park. They just needed some room to run.
Second of July, under Dylan Davis, found it. After Five, under Irad Ortiz Jr., did not.
By getting through in upper stretch, Second of July was able to get first run on After Five and hold off that wide-rallying runner to win the Futurity by a half-length. It was another half-length back to Momos in third.
ARCADIA, Calif. - An all-star team of Breeders’ Cup hopefuls worked at Santa Anita over the weekend led by Sunday appearances from top older horses Improbable and Maximum Security.
Improbable, the winner of three consecutive Grade 1 races since early June, worked a half-mile in 47.20 seconds, a time slightly faster than Maximum Security’s clocking of 47.80 seconds.
Improbable and Maximum Security were first and second in the Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita on Sept. 26, their final prep races for the Breeders' Cup Classic at Keeneland on Nov. 7.
