ARCADIA, Calif. – Kopion has changed direction for the Breeders’ Cup. Instead of racing seven furlongs as the favorite in the Filly and Mare Sprint, Kopion will take on boys in the BC Sprint at six furlongs.
Trainer Richard Mandella confirmed the move Saturday morning. He said Kopion will join comebacker Big City Lights in the BC Sprint; Tamara will be the only Mandella starter in the BC Filly and Mare Sprint.
The sprinters Hope Road and Imagination worked five furlongs in a scorching 57.80 seconds at Santa Anita on Friday for Breeders’ Cup races on Nov. 1.
Both 4-year-olds, Hope Road and Imagination were part of a small team of runners trained by Bob Baffert who worked on Friday.
The filly Hope Road, winner of the Grade 1 Ballerina Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 23 for her third stakes win, is scheduled to run in the BC Filly and Mare Sprint along with stablemates Richi and Splendora.
The flashy workouts are finished for She Feels Pretty, who will start as the leading domestic hope in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 1.
She Feels Pretty breezed a half-mile in 48 seconds at Keeneland on Oct. 10, with “a huge gallop-out”, trainer Cherie DeVaux said. On Friday at Keeneland, She Feels Pretty worked the same distance in a more leisurely 49 seconds.
“She had a nice gallop-out, but we kept her from doing too much,” DeVaux said.
DeVaux described Friday’s workout as “a nice maintenance half, well in hand.”
Mystik Dan, the 2024 Kentucky Derby winner, on Friday at Churchill Downs worked a half-mile in 48.20 seconds in preparation for a start in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Nov. 1 at Del Mar.
Mystik Dan was ridden in the work by Francisco Arrieta, who rode him to victory in the Grade 2 Lukas Classic and who will ride him in the Dirt Mile.
“Just a nice maintenance half-mile, I told Francisco to hit all 12 [second furlongs], he hit that,” trainer Kenny McPeek said. “He worked fast last week. He didn’t need anything overdone today.”
Del Mar
Friday, Oct. 24
Weather: Cloudy
Temp.: 54°
Track: Fast
DEL MAR, Calif. – With the majority of this year’s Breeders’ Cup contenders sticking close to home for their final works, there has been very little to report at Del Mar since the racetrack opened for business Monday. The action did pick up to some degree Friday with four potential Breeders’ Cup starters turning in their final major preps over a fast track on an overcast and somewhat dank morning.
Trainer Aidan O’Brien on Friday was scheduled to ship eight of his nine Breeders’ Cup pre-entrants to Del Mar from Ireland.
Beautify, one of three he pre-entered in the Juvenile Fillies Turf, did not ship because she did not come out of her last work well, O’Brien told Daily Racing Form.
O’Brien is expected to run only Precise in the Juvenile Fillies Turf. True Love, who was pre-entered in this race, has first preference and will run in the Juvenile Turf Sprint, O’Brien said.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Todd Pletcher’s Breeders’ Cup Classic quartet is now a trio.
Locked, a multiple Grade 1 winner who is coming off a victory in the Grade 2 Woodward Stakes, was withdrawn from consideration from the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Friday. Since the Classic was scheduled to be his last race, Locked has officially been retired from racing. In March, it was announced he was going to stand stud at Gainesway Farm in Kentucky beginning in 2026.
Pletcher said myriad things led to Locked being withdrawn from the Breeders’ Cup.
George Schmitt, a prominent Thoroughbred owner and breeder, said last week that he plans to approach the California Horse Racing Board in November with a request to conduct fair meetings at as many as five venues in 2026, including a track in Red Bluff, north of Sacramento, used in past years for unsanctioned races.
In a year where he was a rare non-factor in the 3-year-old division, trainer Todd Pletcher surprisingly finds himself in contention for a record-extending ninth Eclipse Award as champion trainer on the strength of an older male division and a 2-year-old class that brings him to the Breeders’ Cup with several live chances.
It’s a position he couldn’t fathom after the first six months of the year, when he won just six graded stakes, three of which were Grade 1s.
The 14th and final race Breeders’ Cup race at Del Mar next weekend is the $2 million Filly and Mare Turf with a post time of 5:25 p.m. Pacific on Saturday, Nov. 1.
In Britain, the race will start at 1:25 a.m. on Sunday, very late but as good of an excuse as any for owner and breeder Jeff Smith to be awake.
Smith races See The Fire, a two-time group stakes winner who has been second or third in five Group 1 races in Britain and France in the last two years.
“I’ll be up,” Smith said in a phone interview on Thursday.
