It has been 23 years since an American 3-year-old won the Breeders’ Cup Mile, but the way More Than Looks ran winning the Jefferson Cup on Sept. 30 at Churchill Downs, he won’t be without a chance in the 2023 Mile – provided he gets into the race.
More Than Looks is light on qualifying points, with just six, but of the solid Mile starters as of this week, only five horses either qualified through the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series or have more points than More Than Looks.
The Jockeys’ Guild has reached an agreement with the state’s horsemen that will raise the minimum losing mount fee to $125 at all Kentucky racetracks starting with the opening of the Turfway Park meet on Nov. 29, the organizations said Wednesday.
Fev Rover is a bad kicker with a good kick, and she’s on her way to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf after a gutsy victory over a quality field in last week’s Grade 1 E.P. Taylor Stakes at Woodbine.
A 5-year-old Irish-bred mare by Gutaifan, Fev Rover entered the E.P. Taylor after finishing a disappointing fourth in Woodbine’s Grade 2 Canadian on Sept. 9.
Regardless of how many tantalizing international runners start in the Breeders’ Cup Turf on Nov. 4 at Santa Anita, there will be a few American runners leading the way.
Balladeer, winner of the Grade 2 John Henry Turf Championship at 1 1/4 miles on Oct. 1 at Santa Anita, and Get Smokin, winner of the Grade 2 Kentucky Turf Cup at 1 1/2 miles on the undulating course at Kentucky Downs on Sept. 9, are two speedy candidates for the $4 million BC Turf at 1 1/2 miles.
Chatalas will have a key variable in her favor next month in the Grade 1, $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies – a two-turn win at Santa Anita.
She accomplished the feat last Saturday, when she wired the field in the Grade 2 Chandelier, earning a berth into the championship race on Nov. 3.
The Chandelier was run over the same 1 1/16-mile distance of the Juvenile Fillies, and Chatalas equaled her best career Beyer Speed Figure, a 74. She is based at Santa Anita.
It isn’t as if Yuugiri came from nowhere to emerge as a contender in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.
After all, she did win the Grade 3 Fantasy around two turns last year after placing in three stakes, two of them graded, around two turns.
But it’s been as a sprinter that Yuugiri has reached her full potential, and she proved she’s for real after denying the rock-solid Wicked Halo last Saturday in Keeneland’s Grade 2 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes, a “Win and You’re In” for the Filly and Mare Sprint.
Algiers is scheduled to proceed to the Grade 1, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile next month after a runner-up finish in his North American debut at Woodbine, according to Ed Crisford, assistant to his father, trainer Simon Crisford.
Algiers ran in the Grade 3 Durham Cup at 1 1/16 miles on Tapeta last Saturday. It was his first start since finishing second in the Group 1, $12 million Dubai World Cup in March. Algiers was rerouted to last weekend’s race after inclement weather disrupted his training for an intended start in the Grade 2 Woodward at the Belmont meet at Aqueduct.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Prep season for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff ended when Idiomatic wired the Grade 1 Spinster on Sunday at Keeneland and cemented her role as early Distaff favorite.
Yet like every major Distaff prep this year, Idiomatic did nothing truly remarkable other than take advantage of an ideal scenario – slow fractions, loose on the lead. Hardly original in a prep season of copycats.
When it comes to Breeders’ Cup victories, trainer Richard Mandella ranks seventh, his nine wins placing him in a four-way tie with the likes of Charlie Appleby, Brad Cox, and Shug McGaughey.
When it comes to Breeders’ Cup victories at Santa Anita – a track which for the 11th time hosts this event on Nov. 3-4 – Mandella ranks first, as all nine of his wins have come at his home track in Arcadia, Calif. Bob Baffert, whose 18 victories tie him for second most in the Breeders’ Cup with Aidan O’Brien, has seven wins at Santa Anita.
The Indian Summer Stakes was inaugurated at Keeneland in 2018 as a prep toward the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, the newest race on the Breeders’ Cup program. No horse yet has won both races. Last year, trainer Steve Asmussen came pretty close, as Indian Summer winner Private Creed was third, beaten just more than a length, in the Juvenile Turf Sprint, hosted at Keeneland that year.
