ETOBICOKE, Ontario – At 24-1, City Boy was a surprise winner in Saturday’s Grade 2 Nearctic Stakes to most, but not trainer Mike Keogh, who said the 5-year-old gelding was coming off a deceptively good third in a second-level optional claimer heading into the six-furlong turf sprint.
“In his last start, he was five wide on the turn and then he got bumped in the lane, too,” Keogh recalled. “I thought it was a big race. That’s why I put him in there.”
The 2019 campaign for Enable ended with her runner-up finish in the Arc de Triomphe on Oct. 6, but she could race next season at age 6 in an attempt to win the Arc for a third time.
The Racing Post reported Tuesday that Enable will not contest the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita. She won the race last year at Churchill Downs.
:: BREEDERS’ CUP 2019: See DRF’s special section with top contenders, odds, comments, and more
The multiple Grade 3 winner Shotgun Kowboy and the multiple stakes winners Welder and Perfect to Please are entered on the $1 million Oklahoma Classics Night program Friday at Remington Park.
Shotgun Kowboy goes in the $175,000 Classics Cup, a race he has won three times. Welder makes an appearance in the $130,000 Sprint, and Perfect to Please goes in the $130,000 Turf.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Yet another East Coast rider has picked up a West Coast-based runner for the Breeders’ Cup on Nov. 2 at Santa Anita.
John Velazquez will replace Flavien Prat on Distaff contender Secret Spice, according to Billy Koch, managing partner of Little Red Feather Racing Stable. Secret Spice and Prat finished second as the favorite in back-to-back graded stakes at Del Mar and Santa Anita.
:: BREEDERS’ CUP 2019: See DRF’s special section with top contenders, odds, comments, and more
Trainer Brad Cox said Monday that Owendale will make his next start in the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 2 at Santa Anita.
The Oklahoma Derby winner, Owendale also had been under consideration for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.
“He breezed Saturday morning, his first work after the Oklahoma Derby,” Cox said. “He went great. We’re very pleased with him.”
:: BREEDERS’ CUP 2019: See DRF’s special section with top contenders, odds, comments, and more
ARCADIA, Calif. – A few days before Honor A. P. won a maiden special weight race for 2-year-olds at Santa Anita on Sunday, trainer John Shirreffs had a preview of the result when Mike Smith worked the high-class prospect.
“Mike popped him out of the gate, and when he went to pull him up he didn’t want to pull up,” Shirreffs said. “He wanted to go around again.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Eight Rings has behaved in such a positive manner in races and workouts in recent weeks to suggest his antics on Labor Day in the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity are behind him.
Eight Rings won the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes at 1 1/16 miles by six lengths at Santa Anita on Sept. 27 for his first stakes win. Monday, Eight Rings worked five furlongs in 1:01, moving closer to a start in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile here on Nov. 1.
“He looked great,” Baffert said. “He looks happy and healthy. He sat next to a horse and didn’t get rank. He’s not messing around.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – One week after a deliberately slow half-mile work in her return to Santa Anita, Midnight Bisou turned it up a notch early Monday morning.
The early favorite for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, Midnight Bisou worked a solid five furlongs in company and answered a key question – how will she handle a surface that is slower than when she last raced at Santa Anita a year and a half ago?
“She likes this track,” jockey Mike Smith said after the workout. “She handled it really good. Not too many do. She just cruised.”
MIAMI – Trophy Chaser zipped five furlongs in 59.05 seconds on Saturday at Gulfstream Park in his first work since finishing a distant third behind King Jack in the Grade 2 Gallant Bob on Sept. 21 at Parx Racing. Trophy Chaser posted a three-eighths split of 35.31 and was under mild pressure to finish before galloping out six furlongs in 1:14.
MIAMI – Despite the fact Stormy Embrace won a fees-paid berth into the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint by virtue of her victory in the Grade 2 Princess Rooney earlier this summer at Gulfstream Park, trainer Kathleen O’Connell said she and owner Matt Vuskovich have decided to bypass the event.
Stormy Embrace, a homebred daughter of Circular Quay, has won the Princess Rooney each of the last two years. She finished 11th in the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Churchill Downs.
