Catalina Cruiser remains on pace for a start in the Breeders’ Cup next month at Santa Anita, but the race in which he will run is still being decided, trainer John Sadler said Monday.
Catalina Cruiser has won three Grade 2 races in his three starts this year – all at different distances. They include the Pat O’Brien at Del Mar, which earned him a Win and You’re In berth for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Nov. 2. He’s since been working regularly at his base of Santa Anita.
Mongolian Groom, upset winner of the Awesome Again Stakes on Sept. 28 at Santa Anita, will be nominated to the Breeders’ Cup for $200,000 in order to make him eligible to run in the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 2 at Santa Anita, trainer Enebish Ganbat said Tuesday.
“I think we will go to the Classic,” said Ganbat, who trains Mongolian Groom for the Mongolian Stable of owner Ganbaatar Dagvadorj. “He has to pay. There’s no other way.”
Before three Win and You’re In events for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint were run within the span of a couple of hours last Sunday, Wesley Ward was looking pretty strong toward the Nov. 1 race at Santa Anita.
He woke up Monday looking even stronger.
Winning efforts from a couple of Ward-trained 2-year-olds – Four Wheel Drive in the Futurity at Belmont and Kimari in the Indian Summer at Keeneland – have made him the central figure as the five-furlong BC Juvenile Turf Sprint approaches.
“It was a great day for us, no doubt,” Ward said.
A pair of key preps for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint last Saturday produced a few viable challengers to the likely favorites, Covfefe and Come Dancing.
Spiced Perfection, making her first start in more than five months, put forth an extraordinary effort in holding off a late-closing Dawn the Destroyer in the Grade 2 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes at Keeneland, while Lady Ninja nipped the comebacking Selcourt in winning the Grade 3 L.A. Woman at Santa Anita.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Tiz the Law, the dominant winner of the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes last Saturday at Belmont Park, won’t be heading west for the Breeders’ Cup, but he could very well be hitting the road for his next start, according to trainer Barclay Tagg.
Tiz the Law will be strongly considered for the Grade 2, $300,000 Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs on Nov. 30. That race is run around two turns at 1 1/16 miles. It is a week earlier than the Grade 2, $250,000 Remsen Stakes going 1 1/8 miles at Aqueduct.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Arklow, winner of Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Joe Hirsch Stakes, will be pointed to the $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita and a decision on his participation will likely be made closer to entry time.
Trainer Brad Cox said his initial feeling is that Arklow probably likes a turf course with a little give in the ground as was the case at Belmont on Saturday. Cox did say that Arklow ran a super second over firm turf in the Kentucky Downs Turf Cup last month.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Final Frontier and Shekky Shebaz, who have traded decisions in the Belmont Turf Sprint Invitational and Lucky Coin Stakes, are likely to meet again in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 2.
Final Frontier finished second to Shekky Shebaz in the Lucky Coin, and flipped the script in the Belmont Turf Sprint, beating that rival by three-quarters of a length. Final Frontier earned a career-best 104 Beyer Speed Figure.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Filly and mare turf sprinters comprise such a narrow niche that no Breeders’ Cup event has been created for them (yet, anyway). Lacking such opportunity, it looks like the absolute best of this specialized division – with barely any exceptions – will be on hand Friday at Keeneland for the Grade 3, $150,000 Franklin County Stakes.
Morticia, an earner of $989,669, could be making her final career start as part of an oversubscribed field in the 23rd Franklin County. In all, 16 were entered, but only as many as 14 can start in the 5 1/2-furlong race.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Final pre-race works were recorded last weekend for most of the 3-year-old turf fillies intended for the sixth and final Grade 1 race of the Keeneland fall meet, the $500,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup on Saturday.
The Chad Brown trio of Cafe Americano (48.40 seconds), Cambier Parc (49.80), and Regal Glory (49.80) all were sent through half-mile breezes over the Keeneland main track last Saturday as they prepared for the 36th QE II, a 1 1/8-mile turf race for which 12 have been invited. Entries were to be drawn Wednesday.
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.
