Watsdachances established herself as a serious contender for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf with a professional score in Monday’s Grade 3 Miss Grillo Stakes, a Win and You’re In race at Belmont.

Watsdachances raced well off the early pace before closing strongly between rivals in the stretch to prevail by 2 1/4 lengths over yielding ground. She was awarded an 81 Beyer Speed Figure.

Javier Castellano rode Watsdachances for trainer Chad Brown, who won the inaugural BC Juvenile Fillies Turf in 2008 with Maram.

Caracortado is still pointing to the Breeders’ Cup. It’s just not this year’s Breeders’ Cup.

Trainer Mike Machowsky was hoping to get Caracortado to the starting gate for the 2012 Breeders’ Cup off a long layoff, but the 5-year-old gelding has not progressed to the point where in three weeks he will be ready to face the best in the division. Machowsky said Caracortado could now focus on a 2013 campaign, starting with the same race he won at the start of this year, the Grade 3 Daytona at Santa Anita in January, and the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint is again a long-range goal.

Video recaps of key Breeders' Cup prep races

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Breeders' Cup 2012 top contenders

Click race names for DRF handicappers' top contenders and early odds.

The heralded French mare Goldikova was among the stories of the 2011 Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs. After winning the Breeders’ Cup Mile an unprecedented three years in a row from 2008 to 2010, Goldikova finished third in her try for a fourth win in that prestigious race.

[BREEDERS' CUP 2012: DRF top 10 lists, video replays, latest news]

There is no doubting the speed of the Richard Mandella-trained Beholder, a juvenile filly who scorched the main track at Santa Anita last week to the tune of a 108 Beyer Speed Figure. Not only was that number the fastest – by far – of any 2-year-old race in 2012, but Beholder’s final time of 1:09 is the quickest six-furlong clocking at the Santa Anita meeting.

While there was some discussion concerning stretching Beholder out in distance for the Juvenile Fillies, It seems more likely that Mandella will point for the Juvenile Sprint.

Lady of Shamrock, winner of the Grade 1 American and Del Mar Oaks, hasn’t left California this year, and with just three weeks to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf on Nov. 2, trainer John Sadler wasn’t ready to begin with Saturday’s Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland.

Instead, she will train up to the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita, with his feeling being that this will leave her better prepared for the Filly and Mare Turf, rather than going through racing and traveling back and forth from California to Kentucky.

Chad Brown holds a strong hand for the Juvenile Turf. There were two U.S. Win and You’re In races for this Breeders’ Cup event last holiday weekend, the Bourbon at Keeneland and the Pilgrim at Belmont, and Brown won both, with Balance the Books and Noble Tune, respectively.

Dale Romans said Shackleford, one of the top contenders for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, will be among his Saturday workers at Churchill Downs before his sizable Breeders’ Cup contingent leaves two days later on a charter flight to California.

[BREEDERS' CUP 2012: DRF top 10 lists, video replays, latest news]

Trainer Tom Amoss has confirmed that Sum of the Parts will take advantage of the free ticket he earned by virtue of his victory last Saturday in Keeneland’s Win and You’re In Grade 3 Phoenix Stakes and will start in the Nov. 3 Breeders’ Cup Sprint. It will be Sum of the Parts’s second Breeders’ Cup appearance. He finished sixth after an eventful beginning in last year’s Juvenile Sprint.

For the second time in three years, trainer Todd Pletcher will have the favorite for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile when he ships Shanghai Bobby cross-country for the $2 million race.

In 2010, when the Breeders’ Cup was held at Churchill Downs, Pletcher won the Juvenile with Uncle Mo, who, like Shanghai Bobby, was coming off a win in the Grade 1 Champagne.

As it was for Uncle Mo, the Juvenile will be Shanghai Bobby’s first race around two turns.

“A lot of times, their best two-turn race is the first time around it,” Pletcher said.