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.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Less than 24 hours after he was entered in Friday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, Maxfield was forced out of the race due to an unspecified issue with his right front leg, trainer Brendan Walsh said Tuesday.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Landeskog will be scratched from the Breeders' Cup Sprint on Saturday, trainer Doug O'Neill said Tuesday morning.

"He's 95 percent. Not 100. We have to wait for another day," O'Neill said. "He's a cool horse with a bright future."

O'Neill said that Landeskog "cooled out a little funny" after his last work on Saturday. "He tied up, not bad," he said.

Keep these thoughts in mind as you are evaluating the Beyer Speed Figures for the Breeders’ Cup horses: What BSF is it going to take to win the race, what horses are capable of it, what horses are most likely because of current form/race shape/workouts to produce a winning BSF.

ARCADIA, Calif. – ARCADIA, Calif. – He’s known for his defense on the ice, but when it comes to horse racing, the Colorado Avalanche’s Erik Johnson dishes out plenty of assists.