Straight No Chaser will attempt to become just the fourth horse to register back-to-back victories in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 1 at Del Mar. If successful, he will join an exclusive list that includes Midnight Lute (2007-08), Roy H (2017-18), and most recently Elite Power, who captured the Sprint in 2022 and 2023.

Keeneland hosted a 2-year-old turf route stakes, the Bourbon, on Oct. 5. Final Score won it, Turf Star finished second, and Gordon Pass closed for third. The connections of all three colts hope to move on to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf on Oct. 31 at Del Mar.

The complexion of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint changed this week when trainer Aidan O’Brien revealed that he is more likely to keep the accomplished filly True Love sprinting rather than stretching her out to a mile in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on the same day.

“We’re probably leaning toward the Sprint,” O’Brien told Daily Racing Form’s Steve Andersen in a rundown of his Breeders’ Cup roster, while emphasizing that race decisions have yet to be finalized.

Recent history favors the undefeated Final Accord, who will race at a mile for the first time in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar on Oct. 31.

In the 17 runnings of the race, two winners have been tried at a mile for the first time and won the Juvenile Fillies Turf – Meditate at Keeneland in 2022 and Lake Victoria at Del Mar last year. They were trained by Aidan O’Brien of Ireland.

Nitrogen has been racing and winning all year, but only in the past two weeks has her standing changed dramatically for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Nitrogen went from a double-digit longshot to likely second favorite.

A better-than-looked runner-up finish by Nitrogen in the Grade 1 Spinster Stakes on Oct. 5 and two major defections from the Distaff have elevated Nitrogen to 4-1 on the Daily Racing Form’s early odds line. Seismic Beauty is the 8-5 favorite.

It doesn’t appear Ted Noffey will have many challengers in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, but he will encounter at least one familiar foe as Blackout Time, second to Ted Noffey in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland on Oct. 4, will take him on again in the Juvenile, trainer Kenny McPeek said Tuesday.

In the first 41 years of the Breeders’ Cup, there have been only four 3-year-olds to have run in all three Triple Crown races and win the Classic later that year.

On Nov. 1 at Del Mar, Journalism will attempt to become the fifth, joining, among others, his sire, Curlin, who pulled off the feat in 2007. He joined Sunday Silence (1989) and Unbridled (1990), and they were joined by Triple Crown winner American Pharoah in 2015.