ARCADIA, Calif. – If you’re a fan of 2-year-old racing, TGIF.

For the second straight year, the Breeders’ Cup has cleverly packaged its 2-year-old races on one afternoon, with the five juvenile races on Friday at Santa Anita kicking off a two-day festival that will be keenly watched for both racing and safety.

ARCADIA, Calif. – There was a definite chill in the air Wednesday morning at Santa Anita, where the temperature struggled to get out of the 40s for much of the morning. But the unseasonably cold weather was tempered some by all the action heating up on the racetrack, with the majority of this year’s Breeders’ Cup contingent out to train over all three surfaces, including the turf course, which saw its first major flurry of activity Wednesday morning.

ARCADIA, California – Given his pedigree, it should come as no surprise that Joseph O’Brien this week at Santa Anita has a chance to go where no Breeders’ Cup horse person ever has gone before.

O’Brien already is the youngest jockey with a Breeders’ Cup winner, having piloted St Nicholas Abbey to victory in the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Turf. Friday or Saturday, O’Brien, now 26, could become the youngest trainer with a Breeders’ Cup winner. Craig Dollase was 26 when he won the BC Sprint with Reraise.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The connections of Maxfield believe their Grade 1-winning 2-year-old has a bruised right front foot, which is why he was scratched Tuesday from Friday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita.

“That’s how we’re proceeding at this point,” said Jimmy Bell, president of Godolphin USA. Godolphin owns Maxfield. “That would be the best of bad news.”

There will be plenty of action Friday as Aqueduct opens its fall meet with a 10-race card featuring a mandatory payout in the Empire 6 as well as the simulcast of the first of two Breeders’ Cup cards from Santa Anita.

For the second time in two years, inclement weather forced the cancellation of the closing-day card at Belmont Park. Last Sunday’s card was supposed to have a mandatory payout of the Empire 6, which had a $279,432 carryover entering the day. That mandatory payout of the entire Empire 6 pool will be Friday with that wager beginning with race 5 at 2 p.m. Eastern.

ARCADIA, Calif. – It’s 2-year-old Friday at the 2019 Breeders’ Cup and, boy, do the overseas folks want a piece of the action. The Juvenile Fillies Turf and Juvenile Turf Sprint are packed with Europeans.

Let’s keep a couple things in mind. While there are more long-distance racehorses in Europe than America, they campaign their 2-year-olds over shorter distances than we do. Because a horse has been kept to six- and seven-furlong races does not mean his connections believe he’s a sprinter.

Sam Houston Race Park has announced significant upgrades to its racing program for the Thoroughbred meet that opens in January, from a sizable increase in overnight purses to the creation of a new turf stakes for 3-year-olds. The track’s 39-date meet will start Jan. 10 and continue through March 28.

ARCADIA, Calif. – It was not Dennis Albaugh’s time in 2016. Perhaps it will be his moment in Friday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita.

In 2016, the Albaugh-owned Not This Time fell a neck short to Classic Empire in the Juvenile at Santa Anita. Friday, Albaugh and his son-in-law Jason Loutsch, who race under the banner Albaugh Family Stable, are back at Santa Anita with Dennis’ Moment, who was made the 8-5 morning-line favorite for the Juvenile.

ARCADIA, Calif. – For the better part of the last two decades, in the biggest events in horse racing, John Velazquez could typically be found on the back of a horse trained by Todd Pletcher.

The John Lennon-Paul McCartney of Thoroughbred racing, Velazquez and Pletcher have teamed to win 1,795 races. Among the 282 graded stakes they’ve won together are a Kentucky Derby, a Belmont Stakes, and four Breeders’ Cups. In the history of racing, no jockey has earned more purse money than Velazquez ($413 million); no trainer has earned more purse money than Pletcher ($382 million).

SANTA ANITA
Weather: Clear 
Track: Fast 
Temp.: 45

ARCADIA, Calif. - The main track at Santa Anita was full to overflowing with Breeders’ Cup contenders on Tuesday morning, with nearly everybody now in town for the big event here Friday and Saturday.