ARCADIA, Calif. – The all-time leading Breeders’ Cup jockey possesses more than superior horsemanship. Mike Smith also has an uncanny memory.
This fall at Santa Anita, Smith will try to add to his record Breeders’ Cup totals – 26 wins and $35.9 million in earnings. It is no surprise Smith’s most heavily fancied mount is Midnight Bisou in the Distaff, a race he has won five times.
With Breeders’ Cup pre-entries due Monday, numerous details still need to be finalized in regard to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint. But this much is known about the big picture – Wesley Ward looms large.
Ward has the highly regarded trio of Four Wheel Drive, Kimari, and Cambria all set to be flown Oct. 28 from Kentucky to California for the $1 million, five-furlong Juvenile Turf Sprint. All will breeze at Keeneland at least once more before shipping.
The two favorites for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, Covfefe and Come Dancing, both have resumed steady work patterns at their respective home bases and will be among the late arrivals to Santa Anita.
Covfefe has worked twice at Churchill Downs for trainer Brad Cox since winning her most recent start Sept. 21. The 3-year-old filly will breeze at least once more before being flown to California on Oct. 29.
Catalina Cruiser will bring a perfect 2019 record into the Breeders’ Cup next month at Santa Anita, but the championship race in which he will start is still being determined, according to trainer John Sadler.
Catalina Cruiser is under consideration for the $2 million Sprint and the $1 million Dirt Mile. Both races are Nov. 2.
“No decision,” Sadler said Tuesday. “We’re still eyeing the playing field.”
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.”
