The $250,000 Santa Anita Sprint Championship on Saturday is expected to be led by Amazombie, the winner of the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Churchill Downs and the champion sprinter last year.
Amazombie won the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar on July 29 in his last start.
The six-furlong Santa Anita Sprint Championship is part of the Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In program, offering a fees-paid berth he Breeders’ Cup Sprint to the winner.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The $150,000 Arroyo Seco Mile on turf at Santa Anita on Oct. 6 will have an international flavor.
Trailblazer, the winner of two Grade 2 races in Japan in the last year, will make his American debut in the Grade 2 Arroyo Seco Mile, using the race as a prep for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Turf here on Nov. 3.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Fields are starting to take shape for the FallStars Weekend events that will open the 17-day Keeneland fall meet next weekend, with five Grade 1 races being among the major preps for the Nov. 2-3 Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita.
Two of the Grade 1 races are for 2-year-olds: the $400,000 Darley Alcibiades on the opening-day card Friday, and the $400,000 Dixiana Breeders’ Futurity on Saturday. Here is a quick rundown of the other three Grade 1’s, all for more established older horses:
Former exercise rider has become a celebrated equine sculptress, her most notable work to date being a statue of John Henry at Santa Anita. Her bronze of Zenyatta, the wildly popular mare who was the 2010 Horse of the Year, will be unveiled at Santa Anita at noon Saturday.
Paul Reddam, the businessman and horse owner, doesn’t adhere to the “one race at a time” policy that guides many horse people. Even as I’ll Have Another readied for his date with destiny in the Belmont Stakes, having landed two-thirds of the Triple Crown, Reddam was perusing the calendar. He thought through summer, pondered fall, and even let his mind wander into 2013.
“What I had in my head was, the horse would run in the Belmont, and he’d run one or two races before the Breeders’ Cup Classic,” Reddam said. “The next target would have been the Dubai World Cup.”
Proven ability over the distance of 1 3/4 miles is unlikely to become a calling card in American racing anytime soon, and the Breeders’ Cup Marathon has faced something of an uphill battle in its attempt to lure top-class horses since being added for the 2008 program (Can you name the post-time favorite for each of the four runnings to date?).
North America racing fans long ago reached a point of acceptance with regard to homegrown turf talent versus international competition. It’s fairly simple: Our horses – insomuch as there is any sort of patriotic attachment to Thoroughbreds – simply get their heads handed to them when matched with good European runners.
But this year might be different. This year, Wise Dan is racing on grass.
With each of the first three finishers from the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Churchill Downs – Amazombie, Force Freeze, and Jackson Bend – back in training again when the year began, the prospects looked bright for an even more exciting renewal of the Sprint when the fastest horses in the country convened again at Santa Anita on Nov. 3.
It’s fair to say that the state of the juvenile sprint division is in disarray. Early-season stalwarts such as Maybe So (fractured tailbone) and Circle Unbroken (ankle surgery) are out for the year, and Grade 2 Saratoga Special winner Spurious Precision was euthanized after fracturing a knee during a workout. Most of the better-regarded 2-year-olds currently in training will prep for berths in more prestigious Breeders’ Cup events like the Juvenile.
Given that three of the five runnings of the Juvenile Turf were won by European shippers, it’s probably a good idea to begin your prospect search for this year’s edition by looking overseas. The thing of it is, you can look all you want. Just don’t expect a lot of concrete information, at least not right now.
