ELMONT, N.Y. – Eight years ago, trainer Steve Asmussen won the Grade 1 Frizette Stakes at Belmont Park with My Miss Aurelia, who came back to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Churchill Downs and become the champion 2-year-old filly of 2011.
Asmussen will try to complete that same double with Wicked Whisper, who on Sunday won the Grade 1, $400,000 Frizette by 2 3/4 lengths to earn her spot in the starting gate for the $2 million Juvenile Fillies on Nov. at Santa Anita.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown knows anything can happen in a horse race, but he can’t help but be confident in Sistercharlie’s chances to repeat in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf on Nov. 2 at Santa Anita.
MIAMI – Brian Cohen, president of Arindel, has confirmed that Onyx is a candidate for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf if she is able to get into what is expected to be a full field on Nov. 1 at Santa Anita.
Onyx is perfect in three starts on grass, including a three-length victory in the Our Dear Peggy Stakes at Gulfstream on Sept. 28. She earned a career-high 72 Beyer Speed Figure for that effort, which would put her right in the mix with the majority of the leading U.S. candidates for the event.
MIAMI – Jockey Leonel Reyes proved that the three victories he registered on opening day of the 2019 Gulfstream Park West meeting were no fluke when he came back Saturday to post four more wins, including a natural hat trick with Dixie Spirit, Royal Spirit, and La Australiana in races 5 through 7 on the card.
La Australiana, the 5-2 favorite, captured the afternoon’s main event, a first-level allowance race on the turf for trainer Juan Avila.
MIAMI – Under normal circumstances, Gunnevera would be preparing for a trip to California and another shot at the Breeders’ Cup Classic. But this has not been a normal season for the 2018 Classic runner-up, who has not started since his third-place finish to Thunder Snow on March 30 in the Dubai World Cup.
ARCADIA, Calif. – From a $40,000 claimer in February to a Grade 3 winner Saturday, Lady Ninja has had a quite transformation this year.
After winning Saturday’s Grade 3 L.A. Woman Stakes at Santa Anita, Lady Ninja is being strongly considered for the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint here at seven furlongs on Nov. 2.
“I think she can do seven-eighths and I think she’s an improving horse,” trainer Richard Baltas said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Toinette won her second stakes in the last year in Saturday’s $77,275 Swingtime Stakes for fillies and mares, and her trainer, Neil Drysdale, said Sunday he also was encouraged by the fifth-place finish by La Sardane.
ARCADIA, Calif. – At least four runners from Saturday’s Grade 2 City of Hope Mile on turf at Santa Anita are hopefuls for the Breeders’ Cup Mile here Nov. 2 – race winner True Valour, Prince Earl, Catapult, and Bolo.
If the race oversubscribes when pre-entries are taken Oct. 21, a Breeders’ Cup selection committee will have the final say as to how many of them are part of the field of 14.
Bolo, who finished 10th of 11 in the City of Hope Mile, is guaranteed a berth, having won the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile here in May.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Grade 1 Woodbine Mile winner El Tormenta is on track to make his next start in the Grade 1, $2 million Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita on Nov. 2, and trainer Gail Cox said the 4-year-old son of Stormy Atlantic would do most of his prep work here at his home track.
“I am more comfortable having his last breeze here,” she said. “If you get bad weather, we have the main track and we have dirt. He most often breezes on the dirt anyways. That’s the way I felt comfortable doing it.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Woodbine will hold its final two Grade 1 races of the meet this coming Saturday, with the Grade 1, $800,000 Canadian International Stakes and the Grade 1, $600,000 E.P. Taylor Stakes leading the card. A field of seven is expected pass through the entry box on Wednesday for the Canadian International, led by last year’s winner, Desert Encounter.
