This may be the year the Breeders’ Cup Turf trophy stays in the United States for a change.
European-based runners have won the last four, and six of the last seven runnings of the nation’s richest grass race. For the $3 million BC Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 3, the New York-based colt Point of Entry will be favored to keep the prize at home.
With 19 pre-entered, the Juvenile Turf attracted more pre-entries than any other 2012 Breeders’ Cup event, followed by the Juvenile Fillies Turf, with 18, and the Turf Sprint, with 17 pre-entries. And the Juvenile Turf, a one-mile race with a purse of $1 million, also attracted more European pre-entrants than any other of this year’s Breeders’ Cup events with seven. European runners have won three of the first five runnings of the Juvenile Turf. As with all Breeders’ Cup races, the Juvenile Turf field will be capped at 14.
With no clear-cut leader in the division, a full field of 14 appears likely to go postward in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, which oversubscribed when 16 horses were pre-entered for the race Monday. Among those pre-entered were defending Sprint champion Amazombie along with a trio of top contenders from the barn of trainer Bob Baffert.
[BREEDERS' CUP 2012: Race-by-race coverage, video, early odds]
After winning the Kentucky Derby six months ago with I’ll Have Another, owner Paul Reddam and trainer Doug O’Neill may try to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile with He’s Had Enough.
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Reddam and O’Neill pre-entered both He’s Had Enough and Know More for the $2 million Juvenile, which attracted only 10 horses, and for the $1 million Juvenile Turf, which oversubscribed. The pre-entries were announced Wednesday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Royal Delta will run in a Breeders’ Cup race next week at Santa Anita. The question is – what race?
Royal Delta is the early favorite in an outstanding field pre-entered in the $2 million Ladies’ Classic on Nov. 2. But she also was pre-entered in the BC Classic on Nov. 3, allowing for a possibility of facing colts and geldings for a $5 million purse.
[BREEDERS' CUP 2012: Race-by-race coverage, video, early odds]
After European dominance in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf throughout much of the last decade, North American-based runners have shined in recent years, with Shared Account winning in 2010 for America and Perfect Shirl in 2011 for Canada.
If North American-based horses are to three-peat this year, it will require an upset, just as in 2010 and 2011. Of the 13 horses pre-entered for the Nov. 2 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, five have raced mostly in Europe this year, and all are leading contenders, led by Group 1 winners The Fugue and Ridasiyna.
A European shipper has yet to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, but the drought could end in the fifth running of the race Nov. 2, when a host of runners from across the pond participate.
In all, 18 horses were pre-entered in the one-mile event, which went with a 12-horse field in the first two runnings of the race at Santa Anita. The first seven get in on points, and the others gain inclusion through the selection committee. Renee’s Queen is cross-entered with her first preference in the Juvenile Fillies
ARCADIA, Calif. – The Breeders’ Cup on Wednesday tweaked the order of its nine races to be run at Santa Anita on Saturday, Nov. 3, the most significant change moving the Juvenile out of the late pick four and putting the Sprint in its place.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Led by five Breeders’ Cup winners from last year’s event, two from 2010, yet another from 2009, the 2011 Kentucky Derby winner, the 2011 Preakness winner, the best miler in Europe not named Frankel, and several leading candidates for Horse of the Year, including Game On Dude and the turf stars Point of Entry and Wise Dan, a total of 180 horses have been pre-entered in the 15 races that will make up the 29th Breeders’ Cup, to be held at Santa Anita Nov.
