ARCADIA, Calif. - Long name, short field.

Just five 2-year-old fillies were entered in the first of 12 races Saturday at Santa Anita, the $100,000 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Filly Sprint Preview Stakes. The seven-furlong race is supposed to provide a glimpse into what an actual BC race in this niche would look like, but given the dearth of entries – all five fillies are locally based, with apparently no outside stables having shown any interest – it could be this first running will be the last. That, obviously, is a question for another day.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The $100,000 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint Preview at Santa Anita on Saturday was not the original goal of the weekend for the English colt Snow King or the California filly Moulin de Mougin.

They were pre-entered for $1 million juvenile turf races on Friday and Saturday, only to be excluded when the races attracted too many entries.

The Juvenile Turf Sprint Preview, a 6 ½-furlong sprint on the hillside turf course run before the Breeders’ Cup races, is a consolation of sorts, and a chance for one of them to gain a first stakes victory.

ARCADIA, Calif. – You know the tale. Improbable story. Bit melancholy in the end. Still generally uplifting.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Mile High Magic earned his way into Saturday’s $100,000 Damascus Stakes for 3-year-olds over seven furlongs at Santa Anita.

The deal was clinched after trainer Bob Baffert watched the gelding work a half-mile in 47 seconds on Monday.
“After working him, I decided I’d run,” Baffert said.

Mile High Magic has won 2 of 6 starts, but has yet to win a stakes. In his stakes debut, he finished second by a length in the Jim Kostoff Stakes over 6 1/2 furlongs at Fairplex Park on Sept. 9.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Narrowing down Saturday’s $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Santa Anita to one of the European-based runners still leaves handicappers with five horses from which to choose.

Perhaps, then, it best to heed this assessment from Jeremy Noseda, the trainer of the European-based Fantastic Moon.
“The standout horse to me, the one we all have to beat, is Dundonnell,” Noseda said. “Beat him and you win.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – One day after they go at it with the major players in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, trainers Todd Pletcher and Bob Baffert will clash again Saturday with the top contenders in the $2 million Juvenile at Santa Anita.
The difference Saturday is Baffert will send out two runners to Pletcher’s one.

But Pletcher’s Shanghai Bobby has so far been the one in the 2-year-old division, winning all four of his starts including the Grade 2 Hopeful at Saratoga and Grade 1 Champagne at Belmont.

ARCADIA, Calif.  – Bob Baffert has already won the $1.5 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint more times – three – than any other trainer in the 28-year history of the event. On Saturday, he’ll have three chances to win it again when he sends out a trio of top contenders, Coil, Capital Account and Fast Bullet, against 11 rivals in arguably the most competitive and attractive betting race on the second and final day of the 2012 Breeders’ Cup World Championships.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The late Hall of Fame trainer Woody Stephens marked his territory by warning visitors to Belmont Park in New York that the buildings got awfully tall when one crossed the Hudson River.

There will be a similar hurdle facing almost all of the runners in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday at Santa Anita. Once you cross over the looming San Gabriel Mountains, you’ve entered Baffert Country.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The following are final impressions of selected horses competing on Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup program from observations made at Belmont Park and Santa Anita over the past two weeks.

Juvenile Turf

Artigiano has been the busiest of all the Euros during the past week, galloping over both the training and main track for several mornings.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The complexion for the second running of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint on Friday at Santa Anita underwent a dramatic change when trainer Bob Baffert announced on race morning he had to scratch Super Ninety Nine from the race.