The first nine winners of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf mainly fell into obscurity and mediocrity after winning the race. Perhaps the times, they are a-changin’.
Oscar Performance, the 2016 Juvenile Turf winner, is a prime contender in the Breeders’ Cup Mile this year, while 2017 winner Mendelssohn has a fighting chance in the Classic.
The nation’s only 2-year-old with three graded stakes victories will travel from California to Kentucky accompanied by lofty expectations.
:: BREEDERS’ CUP 2018: Pre-entries, odds, comments, and more
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – An oversubscribed field headed by the Bob Baffert duo of Marley’s Freedom and Dream Tree has been pre-entered in the 12th running of the Grade 1, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.
In all, 18 are pre-entered in the seven-furlong Filly and Mare Sprint, with these four listed as alternates (in order of preference): Mopotism, Happy Like a Fool, Dream Pauline, and Bixby Lou. However, Mopotism has the Distaff as her first preference, and Happy Like a Fool has the Sprint as her first preference.
The $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff is one of just two Breeders’ Cup races that did not oversubscribe at the pre-entry deadline on Monday, with just 12 fillies and mares under consideration for the Nov. 3 race. But what it lacks in quantity it makes up for in serious quality, as the field will be led by Kentucky Oaks winners Abel Tasman and Monomoy Girl, both looking to rebound from recent setbacks.
A record number of pre-entries, an overflow field for the event’s richest race, and the potential for at least two unprecedented feats highlight the 35th Breeders’ Cup on Nov. 2-3 at Churchill Downs, for which pre-entries were announced on Wednesday.
There were 221 individual horses pre-entered in the event’s 14 races, with 25 cross-entered in a second race, bringing the total pre-entries to 246, eclipsing the previous records of 201 individual horses and 229 total pre-entries, both set at Santa Anita in 2014.
Mahoning Valley looks to keep its momentum going as it opens its winter-spring meeting Friday. The season at the Austintown, Ohio, track, which extends into late April, generally will run Mondays, Tuesdays, and Saturdays, but Friday cards are scheduled for opening day and Nov. 23.
Mahoning Valley had a record-setting 2017-18 meet in handle, attendance, and field size, and track officials anticipate this meet being equally popular, with average daily purses of $120,000. More than 1,800 applications were received for the 988 available stalls on the backstretch.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The remarkable Escape Clause, who has torn a swath through Western Canada this year, will not put her eight-race win streak on the line at Woodbine this fall.
Owner-trainer Don Schnell said he was exploring all options for the speedy Manitoba-bred after she won last Sunday’s CTHS Sales Stakes in track-record time at Century Downs, near Calgary, Alberta, but a trip to Woodbine to run on the Tapeta main track made the least sense.
Churchill Downs
Weather: Clear
Temp: 44
Track: Fast
Turf: Firm
LOUISVILLE, KY. - The grass course was open for business during training hours at Churchill Downs on Tuesday, but the only trainer opting to take advantage of the opportunity was Ian Wilkes, who sent out his Breeders’ Cup Turf hopeful, the Brazilian-raced and -bred Quarteto de Cordas, to breeze in company shortly before 10 a.m.
Jockey Angel Serpa will represent Laurel Park and the United States during the 16th China Wuhan International Horse Racing Festival in China on Oct. 25-27.
Serpa, 30, was an Eclipse Awards finalist for apprentice jockey in 2010. He is in the midst of a comeback after breaking his ankle in a gate accident at Laurel last December. He returned to riding in late June and is 6 for 61 since.
“Since I came back from the injury, I feel good,” Serpa said. “It hurts a little bit when it’s cold, but right now I’m feeling great and we keep going. Never give up.”
