Santa Anita
Monday, October 28, 2019
Weather: Clear
Track: Fast
Turf: Firm
Temperature: 50

ARCADIA, Calif. – Only five potential Breeders’ Cup starters worked Monday at Santa Anita, but two of them, McKinzie and Midnight Bisou, are expected to go postward the favorites in their respective races Saturday.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Zulu Alpha went from beating Arklow by 3 1/4 lengths in the Grade 3 Kentucky Turf Cup at Kentucky Downs on Sept. 7 to finishing sixth behind that rival by the same margin in the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Belmont Park on Oct. 5.

The result of the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic, run at a slow pace, left trainer Mike Maker convinced he did not see the best from Zulu Alpha.

“We threw the race out,” he said on Monday.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Walk In Marrakesh, second in the Grade 1 Natalma Stakes at Woodbine in September, will not start in the Friday’s Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita, trainer Ignacio Correas said on Monday.

“She’s not as good as we want her to be,” he said. “She won’t be entered.”

:: BREEDERS’ CUP 2019: See DRF’s special section with fields, odds, comments, and more

Correas said Walk In Marrakesh “was tired after her plane trip” last week.

Blue Chipper will make some history on Saturday when he starts in the Grade 1, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Santa Anita. The 4-year-old son of Tiznow, who has won his last six starts by a combined margin of 45 1/4 lengths, is based at Busan Racecourse in South Korea.

“He’s the first horse to represent Korea in the Breeders’ Cup,” said Seungho Ryu, general manager of the international department of the Korea Racing Authority.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Hog Creek Hustle fits the underdog role well. After winning the Grade 1 Woody Stephens at Belmont Park at 18-1, the Overanalyze colt missed winning the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens at Saratoga by a few inches, this time at 10-1.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Cooler Mike captured Woodbine’s final turf stakes of the season with a half-length victory over Silent Poet in the Bunty Lawless on Oct. 20. Trainer Nick Nosowenko said he would like to run Cooler Mike twice more at Woodbine, and is targeting the $100,000 Sir Barton Stakes on Nov. 30 as Cooler Mike’s final start of the meet.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Mongolian Groom, a 25-1 winner of the Awesome Again, isn’t the only horse who earned his way into the Breeders’ Cup Classic with a big upset in a Grade 1 last month.

Math Wizard won the Pennsylvania Derby at 31-1, after which trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. and the owners of the 3-year-old Algorithms colt decided to try to stun the racing world again.

ARCADIA, Calif. – An intriguing showdown between Sistercharlie and Magical will not take place in Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf as Magical was diagnosed with a temperature Monday morning and did not ship to California.

Trainer Aidan O’Brien told The Racing Post that Magical would be retired.

“She has been an unbelievable mare,” O’Brien told the publication. “She was so game, so consistent and so classy.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – You could call him “Pinto Bean” and it would fit, but then nobody would call their top-class racehorse anything like that, so trainer Luis Carvajal Jr. settled on “Little Rocket.”

If he could limbo a little, Imperial Hint, 6, might walk clean underneath the largest Thoroughbreds. Out on the racetrack he just runs them over.

He’s not just small, he’s unusual looking, a bowling ball of a being, short legs poking out of a fullback’s torso so layered with muscle Imperial Hint looks almost as wide as tall.

ARCADIA, Calif. – McKinzie in his final work on Monday for the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday at Santa Anita was timed by Daily Racing Form’s Mike Welsch in 1:00.94 for five furlongs, after which his trainer, Bob Baffert, let out an audible sigh of relief.

“I can relax now,” Baffert said. “These works are so important. He was really smooth. It went just right. No excuses. He’s as ready as I can get him.”