DEL MAR, Calif. – The fog that enveloped Del Mar on Friday morning was an apropos setting on the morning Senor Buscador was to have his final workout in preparation for the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 2.
Despite a sensational start to his 6-year-old season, Senor Buscador’s status as a win candidate in the Classic is hazy at best.
DEL MAR, Calif. – For the last month, trainer Doug Cowans has been looking for any reason not to send Next to Southern California for the Breeders’ Cup. Unable to find anything, Next on Monday will be bound for California, where on Nov. 2 he will run in the $7 million Classic at Del Mar.
In the off-chance that he finds something amiss between now and Monday, Cowans on Thursday listed Next’s participation in the Classic at “99.5 percent.”
Abientot, winner of the Grade 3 Matron Stakes at Aqueduct on Oct. 6, is expected to start in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 1 after the defection of the English group stakes winner Celandine.
Celandine, who won the Group 2 Lowther Stakes at York Racecourse in England on Aug. 22, finished fifth behind BC Juvenile Fillies Turf hopeful Lake Victoria in the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket on Sept. 28.
On Thursday, a stable spokesman for trainer Ed Walker said Celandine will not be sent to California.
Fiery Lucy may only be the winner of a June maiden race, but with some luck she would have won the Grade 3 Weld Park Stakes in Ireland last month.
A neck loss in that race was enough for Fiery Lucy to be pre-entered for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 1. The hope is that she can make sufficient improvement to produce a surprise result in the one-mile race.
“We’ll give it a shot,” California-based co-owner Lindsay LaRoche said on Wednesday. “There are so many variables.”
Seize the Grey, one of 19 horses pre-entered in the Grade 1, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Del Mar, had a significant work for the Nov. 2 race on Wednesday.
The Preakness and Pennsylvania Derby winner went six furlongs in 1:13.40 at his Churchill Downs base, where his major prep work is being completed, according to trainer D. Wayne Lukas.
“I doubt if I work him there,” Lukas said Tuesday of Del Mar. “I think we’ll probably just do some serious galloping there.”
The question probably is not “if” but “who.”
A European horse has won the last three renewals of Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, five of the last seven, and one among the seven of them selected to start this year likely wins Nov. 1 at Del Mar.
The “who” leads to a less certain answer – no standouts among the Euro septet.
Aidan O’Brien won the race the last two years, has six Juvenile Turf wins overall, and pre-entered the pair of Henri Matisse and Monumental.
Trainer Bob Baffert will have numbers but he is unlikely to have the favorite when he seeks a record sixth victory in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile to be run Nov. 1 at Del Mar.
Baffert pre-entered three 2-year-olds in the Juvenile and though all of them are graded stakes winners, the trio of Gaming, Getaway Car, and Citizen Bull are likely to go off at longer odds than the likes of East Avenue and Chancer McPatrick, who figure to vie for favoritism in an intriguing renewal of the Juvenile.
The Thoroughbreds pre-entered in the Breeders’ Cup were bred in nine different countries – Argentina, Canada, Chile, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Japan, South Africa, and the United States. South Africa is among the countries seeking its first Breeders’ Cup win, and seeking to become a major player on the international stage.
The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Nov. 1 at Del Mar retained its status as one of the more popular races in the two-day series when pre-entries were announced Wednesday.
The race drew 21 pre-entries from Europe and throughout North America. Of the other 13 races to be run Nov. 1-2, only the Juvenile Turf with 23 drew more pre-entries.
