ARCADIA, Calif. -- Algiers, the Dubai World Cup runner-up, was scratched from Saturday’s $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile due to a foot issue, assistant trainer Ed Crisford said Wednesday.
Crisford, who works with his father, Simon, said Algiers came off the track at Santa Anita Tuesday “slightly off” in his right front foot.
SANTA ANITA
Tuesday, Oct. 31
Weather: Clear
Temperature: 52
Track: Fast
Turf: Firm
ARCADIA, Calif. - The gang’s all here for Breeders’ Cup 2023, and while the heavy lifting is just about over, there is still plenty of work to do and observations to be made between now and when the starting gate opens for the first of this year’s 14 BC races here Friday afternoon.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission on Tuesday approved a revision of its rules on mount fees that will raise the minimum losing mount fee to $125, setting the revisions on a path to final approval sometime next year.
Big Invasion drew the inside post in a field of 12 in Saturday’s $1 million Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at five furlongs at Santa Anita.
While post 1 might spook some trainers, Christophe Clement is taking an opposite approach, hoping an inside draw will work for his seven-time stakes winner.
“The shortest way around is from the rail,” Clement said.
Big Invasion is a closer, and that may be an advantage for a 4-year-old colt with an inside post.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Practical Move, the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby winner and a contender for Saturday’s $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, suffered “a sudden death” while galloping on the track Tuesday morning, trainer Tim Yakteen confirmed.
Practical Move was galloping into the stretch over the Santa Anita oval and and bolted to the outside rail when he fell, nearing the eighth pole.
ARCADIA, Calif. – On a rainy Tuesday in April, Live In The Dream won his 2023 turf debut in a five-furlong handicap at tiny Pontefract Racecourse in Northern England.
Four months later, and about 30 miles to the northeast, Live In The Dream was the shock winner of the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes at York Racecourse, earning a fees-paid berth to Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.
Live In The Dream is trainer Adam West’s first starter in the United States.
“This is a fairy tale,” West said over the weekend.
ARCADIA, Calif. – At 55-1, Onesto was a surprise third in the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris on Oct. 1, missing second by a nose in Europe’s top race for older horses.
Of the 15 runners in the $5.29 million Arc, Onesto is the only expected starter in Saturday’s $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita, the richest grass race in the United States.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Arcangelo, the Belmont Stakes and Travers winner and presumptive favorite for Saturday’s $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita, did not train for two days after developing “a little warmth” in his left hind foot, trainer Jena Antonucci said.
Antonucci said she pulled the left hind shoe from Arcangelo and the horse simply walked at the barn both Sunday and Monday.
Antonucci termed her level of concern as “very low” and did enter Arcangelo on Monday morning in the Classic.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Geaux Rocket Ride, who underwent surgery to repair a displaced condylar fracture on Sunday, “is not right out of surgery,” according to trainer Richard Mandella, and has been transferred to the Chino Valley Equine Medical Hospital for further evaluation.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The Japanese horse Ushba Tesoro is getting all kinds of attention this week at Santa Anita as people begin to realize he stands a strong chance of winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Ushba Tesoro is the best dirt horse in Japan, but much less heed is being paid to the mare Songline, the best turf miler in Japan and a serious player Saturday in the Breeders’ Cup Mile.
