With the likes of Flat Out, Ron the Greek, and To Honor and Serve all pointing for the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 3 at Santa Anita, trainer Bill Mott will be attempting to win the Classic for the second straight year, having pulled off an upset last year with Drosselmeyer.
Only once, when Jay Robbins sent out Tiznow to victories in 2000 and 2001, has a trainer won the Classic in consecutive years. No trainer has ever won it in consecutive years with different horses.
Most of the major players for the Grade 1, $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies are confirmed for the Nov. 2 race at Santa Anita, but the field is still in flux.
Sweet Shirley Mae, the Spinaway runner-up who was scratched from last weekend’s Frizette at Belmont, is now on the fence, while My Happy Face, beaten a head in that race by divisional heavy Dreaming of Julia, could join the fray, although plans have not yet been made for her, trainer Rudy Rodriguez said Wednesday.
The connections of Obviously are ready to gamble $100,000 that their horse can finish fourth or better in the Breeders’ Cup Mile. The humans connected with Gordon Lord Byron are not so sure they want to put up that kind of stake.
[BREEDERS' CUP 2012: DRF top 10 lists, video replays, latest news]
Three prep races across the nation for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint last weekend all featured odds-on favorites. Groupie Doll ($2.80) and Musical Romance ($3.20) came through with flying colors winning the Thoroughbred Club of America and Mike Sherman Memorial respectively; but previously unbeaten Winding Way ran herself off the radar screen finishing last of four behind second choice Rumor ($7.20) at 1-5 in the inaugural running of the L.A. Woman Stakes at Santa Anita.
A group of 379 Quarter Horses seized earlier this year by federal officials for allegedly being part of a money laundering ring by Los Zetas Mexican drug cartel are scheduled to be sold at Heritage Place’s fall mixed sale in Oklahoma City on Nov. 1-3.
The 379 horses are part of a 900-horse sale. The horses are being sold as the property of the Department of Treasury and include mares, weanlings, yearlings, 2-year-olds, and other horses of racing age, and embryos.
Solemia, the winner of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris on Sunday, will make the final start of her career outside of France. It remains to be seen whether she will start in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 3 or the Japan Cup at Tokyo Racecourse on Nov. 25.
There were mixed signals on Wednesday. Trainer Carlos Laffon-Parias said a decision will be made on Friday.
“It’s between the Breeders’ Cup and the Japan Cup,” Laffon-Parias said in a telephone interview.
Grace Hall needed a big performance to justify returning to the big stage. She delivered at Hoosier Park.
A romping victory Oct. 6 in the Grade 2 Indiana Oaks marked a welcome rebound for Grace Hall in her first start since finishing nowhere as the even-money favorite Aug. 18 in the Grade 1 Alabama at Saratoga.
Trainer Tony Dutrow can now look to the West.
The American Quarter Horse Association on Tuesday announced sanctions against 11 trainers who received suspensions for positives for the Class 1 drug dermorphin in Louisiana and New Mexico. The horsemen listed in a press release issued by the AQHA are Alvin Smith Jr., John D. Soileau, Lamont Charles, Alonzo Loya, Kyi Lormand, Heath Taylor, Anthony Agilar, Gonzalo Gonzales, John Henry Bassett, Jeffery Heath Reed, and Carlos Sedillo.
Haskell winner Paynter continued to hold his own Sunday, four days after undergoing surgery to remove a 35-centimeter abscessed area from his cecum, according to tweets by owner Ahmed Zayat.
The 3-year-old Awesome Again colt remains at the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center veterinary hospital.
