DEL MAR, Calif. – Last December, when he attended the Global Symposium on Racing in Arizona, trainer Todd Pletcher remembers telling fellow Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert that he was light on 3-year-olds for the 2025 spring classics.
Pletcher proved prophetic as he missed his first Kentucky Derby in 21 years and ran longshots in both the Preakness and Belmont Stakes.
“Definitely, the cupboard was pretty bare this time last year,” Pletcher said.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Mystik Dan, the 2024 Kentucky Derby winner, was scratched out of Saturday’s $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile and Sweet Azteca and Tamara, the top two morning-line choices in Saturday’s $1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint were all scratched out of their respective races by regulatory veterinarians Saturday morning.
Atsila was also scratched by the vets out of the Filly and Mare Turf.
Total commingled betting on the five Breeders’ Cup races held on Friday at Del Mar in Southern California was down 10.8 percent, according to charts of the races.
The betting total for the five races was dragged down by a 30 percent drop in betting on the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, which had a six-horse field this year, compared to 10 horses last year. Betting on the Juvenile dropped nearly $2.42 million, from $8.04 million last year to $5.62 million this year.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Precise, the 6-5 morning-line favorite for Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, and Blackout Time, the third choice in Friday’s $2 million Juvenile, have been scratched from their respective races, according to their connections.
Aidan O’Brien, trainer of Precise, told Matt Chapman of At the Races, that Precise coughed 10 times.
Kenny McPeek, the trainer of Blackout Time, said he was perplexed about why the vets scratched Blackout Time from the Juvenile.
DEL MAR, Ca. – Christophe Soumillon wasn’t feeling sick, was, in fact, asymptomatic when a COVID-19 test administered on Nov. 4, 2020, at Keeneland came back positive the following day. Soumillon, the only one of 55 jockeys set to ride at the Breeders’ Cup to test positive, had to miss rides on Tarnawa in the Filly and Mare Turf and on Order of Australia in the Mile. Probably he did feel sick after both horses went out and won.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Even without the star, the show will go on.
The defection of leading 3-year-old and potential Horse of the Year Sovereignty certainly leaves a void in what was shaping up to be an all-time Breeders’ Cup Classic. But the $7 million Classic and the other eight Breeders’ Cup races to be run Saturday at Del Mar, a stone’s thrown from the Pacific Ocean, will still have plenty of drama and compelling story lines to keep one’s interest throughout the championship-defining series of races.
From a training base in County Carlow, Ireland, trainer Willie Mullins has conquered jump racing in his home country and Britain in a spectacular manner. This week, his massive operation has spread as far as Del Mar and Melbourne, Australia.
Mullins will have his first Breeders’ Cup runner when Ethical Diamond starts in Saturday’s $5 million Turf at 1 1/2 miles. Ethical Diamond was a successful hurdler for Mullins earlier this year.
DEL MAR, Calif.– Jockey Rossa Ryan had a high standard to match this year after a 2024 season that included wins aboard Bluestocking in the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in Paris and Starlust in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar.
Ryan, who stands 5 feet 8 inches, won 201 races in Britain alone in 2024, the second consecutive year he surpassed the 200-win milestone.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Scottish Lassie, a two-time Grade 1-winning filly, was scratched out of Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Del Mar due to a minor issue in her right foreleg, trainer Jorge Abreu said Thursday morning.
“She galloped [Wednesday] and she schooled. She’s walking sound, but when I gave her a trot she wants to be a hair off right front,” Abreu said.
Abreu said it was his and his owner’s decision to scratch the horse, who was drawn in post 5 and was listed at 12-1 on the morning line.
